Angst
by ThePink1 at Reefside.Net
Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story. Even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. … Two stories in One, in alternating chapters!
1. Chapter 1

Angst

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story. Even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

The final blast to subdue Cedric had been too much; the building gave way and, even in their Elemental Forms, the girls had succumbed to the explosion of masonry and magic released when Cedric perished.

Emerging from the crystalline prison of Elyon's diadem which Nerissa had imprisoned them in, the Queen and C.h.k.y.y2. had beheld the profound devastation in numbed disbelief. Thinking they'd been fighting to break out to save the girls from the mindless existence of Elemental Transformation, the six had outwitted Nerissa and reappeared in the ruins of the battlefield.

Finding no signs of life, poor Elyon had collapsed in the rubble, crying inconsolably. Yan Lin and her Altermere had embraced in shared grief at the loss of five granddaughters – and Guardians – they had both been so proud of. Unable to do much for their fellow recent captives, Cassidy, Halinor, and Kadma had started to search the wreckage, looking for nothing in particular, but needing something to do in the meantime.

Settling on damage control, Cassidy and Halinor were putting out the small fires that had been started during the battle and from the collapse of the building. That's how they discovered Taranee.

Smoldering in the crater her sudden descent had carved in the rubble, Taranee Cook was flickering back and forth between her Guardian Form and her Elemental Firebody. Just as Halinor sent a mental cry for the others' help, Matt, Napoleon and Mr. Huggles landed near the Fire Guardian and changed back to their everyday selves. Huggles scurried over to Taranee's prone form, chittering in distress, only to scamper back as she flared back to fiery elemental life.

Stumbling up the hill of rubble in response to Halinor's incoherent summons, Elyon stopped next to Matt in shock at the sight of Taranee as the former Guardians knelt around their successor.

"Mattie-boy, it'll take all of us to help her back …" Napoleon started to say, when the mournful group became aware of the extra two people on the hill.

Peter Cook and Nigel Ansbury crested the rise at a run, both crying the names of the W.i.t.c.h.es, Taranee's about twice as often as the others. When the pair saw her flickering form beside the others, they both charged forward singlemindedly.

"_Crap_," Matt muttered, getting in front of Peter, and nudging Elyon into Nigel's path as he went. Still screaming his sister's name, Peter slammed into him like a bull, and the two went down in a windmill of limbs.

Before Peter could fight his way back to his feet, a large black cat pounced on his chest, and roared with the volume of a lion.

"ALL RIGHT, SETTLE DOWN! YOU TOO, NIGEL!" At that, Peter looked over at his sister's boyfriend, only to see Nigel was being easily restrained by young Elyon Brown, a mere wisp of a girl half his size. That's when it registered: the _cat_ had TALKED! Staring up at the black beast, unremarkable except for his size, (and his voice, which sounded like a native of Brooklyn, New York!) Peter gulped and tried not to panic.

"Hey, isn't that Corny's cat?" Nigel asked.

"_No,"_ several people, including the cat, answered him. "My name is Napoleon, and if I'm anybody's cat besides my own, I guess you could say I belong with Lillian, Cornelia's sister." Nigel and Peter goggled at him as he answered, then Elyon gasped, looking over at Matt in a panic.

"Ohmigosh, Matt! What'll we tell them? Miss Vandom, the Lairs, the Hales, the Cooks …" she said as she looked down at Peter fretfully. "Oh, the Lins, ohmigosh, Yan Lin, what do we tell your son and daughter-in-law?"

Yan Lin, her Altermere, and their fellow teammates traded several long looks while telepathically conferring. Then Yan Lin spoke up. "We tell them the truth." She reached down and shooed Napoleon off Peter's chest, then helped the muscular youth back to his feet. Her duplicate was leading Nigel and Elyon over to the circle around Taranee's still-shifting form.

"But first we must save our last Guardian. Everybody, join hands, concentrate on your best memories of Taranee, and … brace yourselves …"


	2. Chapter 2

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story. Even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

Chapter 2

Stephanie Payton dragged herself into homeroom, looking for her fellow partners in misery. _'Found 'em,'_ she noted a second later, spotting a trio of brunette heads laying on their owners' desks in the corner. As she wended her way towards them the middle one looked up.

"_Ni hao_, Stephanie," the teen Asian boy said. He yawned, and uttered a Chinese curse under his breath as he stretched. "Third time this week and it's only Tuesday." He tried to grin away the pain they all were feeling, but his almond eyes slitted in agony as they caught the light from the overhead fluorescents when he rolled them dramatically.

Stephanie chuckled weakly at his joke, only to be glared at by the other two kids.

"Man, I'm too tired to call in sick. Think the office would care if I called in dead?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Nigel clamped a hand over it, groaning. "Geez, I hope T didn't hear that." The group had been on tenterhooks all Winter Break after the televised showdown between W.i.t.c.h. and Cedric downtown.

"Relax, Nigel," the brown-haired girl across from him answered. "I called Elyon up, and sent her over to Taranee's this morning. With any luck, Q.E. will be able to help our T reign in her new powers again before first bell."

"Thanks, Alchemy," Nigel said, just as the Fire Guardian and the Queen of Meridian walked in. Schooling their expressions, the four teens gave the veteran pair nods of acknowledgement, and Nigel stood and reached out to Taranee. As their hands touched, a warm breeze swirled around the six people. Taranee smiled shyly up at Nigel.

"Heya, Beauty," he murmured, grinning back.

"Hello, my Beast." The other four gave soft moans of resignation. The couple had been using their stage names as Pet Names since they'd landed the parts in the school play.

Just then, the bell rang, and they all hurried to their seats as their homeroom teacher came in. "Good morning, students."

"Good morning, Mister Collins," the class replied, some more woodenly than others.

"Alright, just a few announcements before first class," Mr. Collins began. "The kitchen is still under repair, so lunch today is another sandwich buffet. As you are all no doubt aware, tomorrow is the assembly in memoriam of our recently fallen students: Cornelia Hale, Irma Lair, Hay Lin, and Will Vandom." He paused a moment, and the six kids in the back corner gave him sympathetic nods.

Until that fateful night in December, Dean Collins and Will Vandom had been one short question from becoming family. Dean had been prepared to ask Susan, Will's mom, to marry him on Christmas Eve. With Will's sudden demise, and all the other unexpected circumstances that the holiday season had wrought on everyone, he counted his blessings that Susan was still speaking to him at all.

A few quiet seconds crept by, then somebody cleared their throat. Dean blinked, then smiled gratefully at Elyon, who gave him a reassuring smile from behind the hand still covering her mouth.

"_Thank you, Your Majesty,"_ Dean thought to her, knowing she'd receive the message one way or another. Then he continued with the morning's announcements. "Finally, we have the pleasure of welcoming two new students to our school, and our homeroom class. Please extend a warm Sheffield welcome to Stephanie Payton, and Gen Lin." He motioned the pair forward with an encouraging grin, and stepped aside so they could address the class.

"_Nuren di yi,"_ Gen murmured to Stephanie as they got to the blackboard. He stepped off to the side behind her with a wicked grin.

"_Shieshie ni_, Gen," she returned sarcastically, turning to face the class with a wide smile. At Taranee's quizzical look, she sent _"Ladies first, my asterisk,"_ knowing their Flame Mistress would pass the joke on for her.

"Hi everyone. I'm Stephanie, I'm from Fadden Hills, I like to swim and draw, and as you just heard, I speak some Chinese. Not _that_ much though, so if Mr. Lin here rambles on, I can only help a little." She gave a token curtsey, and fled back to her seat to equally token applause, anxious to hear what Gen would say to the class and, by way of the gossip chain, the rest of the school.

"'_Ahem.'_ My name is Gen, as you heard. I just moved here from Dalian, China. My late cousin Hay wrote me often, and she would regale me with exciting tales of her classmates and the Institute, and when I found out I was to come to America and attend Sheffield with her, I was never happier. Now, I can only hope you will accept me as you did our dear Hay-hay." In the stunned silence that followed, he walked back to his desk. When he got seated, he found everyone was still staring at him.

"Yes, well, welcome to Shef …" The bell rang for first class, interrupting Dean's attempt to regain the class' attention. "ALL RIGHT, ORDERLY, PLEASE! STEPHANIE AND GEN, STAY HERE JUST … one minute … heh." Dean abruptly stopped yelling over the departing students and the bell as the room emptied in what had to be record time. Some had already been texting away on their phones as they left, so Collins figured it wouldn't be long before the rest of the school knew about Gen and Stephanie. Especially since the first two out the door had been the infamous Grumper sisters, the gossip queens of Sheffield Institute.

The freshly introduced pair of teens stepped back up to his desk, expectant looks on their faces. The other four waited just outside the door, listening. "Here're your schedules, Steph, Gen. I pulled what strings I could to keep you two in the same classes as the others, so just stick with Taranee, Nigel, Elyon, or Alchemy, and you should be fine. Just remember, if you lot need to take care of any 'G-mergencies'," and he traded an insider's smile with the two teens, "Mrs. Rudolph or I will do our best to help." He sighed, remembering the conference the young Queen of Meridian had held after the tragic end of W.i.t.c.h.'s final battle.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story. Even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

Chapter 3

"I still don't see what that weird news story has to do with our daughter," Elizabeth Hale said. Almost all of the Guardians' parents were gathered in her spacious living room, watching the Eleven O'clock News on the Hales' 50" plasma-screen television. C.h.k.y.y2. had worked double-time to get Susan Vandom, Chen and Joan Lin, and Tom and Anna (and Chris) Lair over to the Earth Guardian's residence once they'd revived Taranee. (She and Peter had decided, since their parents were out of town at a concert for the evening, and consequently wouldn't see the damning newscast, not to tell them _anything._ Yet.)

As Yan Lin and Susan had been leaving the Vandoms' apartment, Dean Collins had been arriving, and at just the sight of Susan's worried expression and Yan's sorrowful one, he'd silently fallen in step beside them, holding Sue's hand reassuringly.

They were still handclasped now in Harold and Elizabeth's living room, a growing sense of horror overtaking them at the end of the news segment as realization rocked the pair to the core. Dean could tell the Lins were just as hard-hit; Joan was a weepy wreck, and Chen's eyes had that hollow look the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had worn at the end of World War Two.

"But _muqin,_ what happened to the girls?" Chen asked, his voice hoarse.

"We still don't know for sure," Yan Lin's Altermere answered. For simplicities' sake, the group of former Guardians had decided to start calling her 'Mira'. It had been her unpleasant task to bring Chen and Joan to the Hales'. Chen's reaction to suddenly having _two_ mothers wasn't nearly as bad as the way the gathered parents were taking the news that their heroic children were quite probably dead. News which, unfortunate though it might be, Elizabeth was still not buying.

"Oh, come on, Joan, Chen, you believe this crazy lookalike about the girls? Taranee," Elizabeth started, turning on the quiet girl slumped miserably in the corner. "Tell us the truth. What happened downtown? Where are the other girls?

Poor shaking Taranee looked up at her brother and Elyon, who were keeping her company at Harold's entertaining minibar. Her sigh had Peter ready to pour her a stiff shot of the first bottle to hand, just for her nerves. "It's all true, Mrs. Hale. After the others reawakened me from my elemental trance, I helped them search more before we all came over here. We didn't find any sign of the others." She shuddered anew, thinking of the awful realizations she'd come to as they checked through the wreckage.

"Hay Lin was probably blown away and dispersed by the concussion wave when the building collapsed. Irma and Cornelia were at ground zero, and were quite likely absorbed into the impact crater. Will would have ground out on the masonry and steel as it crumpled. I couldn't find a telepathic trace of _any_ of them afterwards." Taranee shook again, looking at each set of parents as she started to cry again. "I'm … I'm sorry …" She virtually collapsed into herself, and Peter wrapped his arms around her. _"So … sorry,"_ she continued telepathically, literally _scaring_ the truth into Elizabeth and the Lairs. Pragmatists both, Tom and Anna had until that moment steadfastly disbelieved the very notion that their daughter had been a magical winged superhero.

"What do you … what does she mean, 'ground out'?" Susan redirected her question from Taranee to Cassidy, who was closest.

Cass looked up from her clasped hands. "During the battle with Cedric – the big snake guy – the girls assumed Elemental Zenith, literally _becoming_ their elements. Will's element is … was … electricity …" Cassidy sobbed softly. She spun on her chair to look at her teammates. "Oh, god, Yan, Halli, I've got to tell _my_ mom, too. She deserves to know where I've been for thirty years …"

"_Cassidy, be careful,"_ Halinor warned mentally. _"We don't want to get their hopes up prematurely. Until we know how Rissi brought _you _back, I don't want to mention it to them yet."_ As the Voice of Candracar present, the rest of C.h.k.y.m. took her words to heart, and Cassidy hurriedly turned back to Susan and Dean.

"I was in a coma, stuck in Metamoor for thirty years after our former leader Nerissa went power-mad and attacked us. Long story short, she revived me using power stolen from the Heart of Meridian," she paused and gave a brief nod toward little Elyon Brown, "so she could reclaim the Heart of Candracar from Will and the Guardians …"

"The Heart of Candracar?" Susan sat upright. "You mean that gaudy pink necklace Will was always wearing?" She stood up and looked at each of the former Guardians in turn. _"MY DAUGHTER IS DEAD BECAUSE OF SOME ANCIENT WITCH WHO JUST WANTED HER FAVORITE NECKLACE BACK?!"_ She was facing Yan Lin at the end, her eyes wild, tear-reddened, and mad as Hell. "How could you let this happen? I trusted you … we ALL trusted you with our daughters. Your _own GRANDDAUGHTER_, YAN LIN!" Susan started breaking down in front of them all. Her arms crossed over her chest, clutching her shoulders and falling to her knees as she began to shiver in the onset of shock.

Dean sank down next to her, wrapping his arms around her. "Sue! Susan, it'll be okay, just hold on. Taranee survived; maybe the others did too, somehow. We won't stop looking, I promise." Tom Lair rumbled his vehement agreement to that. Taranee's renewed sobs could be heard as a counterpoint to Susan's, and none of C.h.k.y.m. could meet any of the parents' eyes.

"_Why_ _…?"_ Sue's moaned question made everybody cringe anew. "Why didn't Will just _give her the Heart?"_

"Because … she was a true hero, Susan." Yan Lin knelt before the grieving mother, but addressed all the parents. "They _all_ were true heroes: saving lives, stopping the bad guys time and again, regardless of the personal cost." She met Tom's eyes challengingly. "Would you have truly expected any less from your daughters?" Yan looked back at Susan. "Will knew, better than anyone, what Nerissa was capable of; and that was with the partial power she was able to leech off of three Hearts. The Guardians, our girls, were there to make sure she never reclaimed control of the Heart of Candracar, with good reason."

"What is all this stuff about Hearts?" Anna Lair asked. "And what's Candracar?" All the Guardians looked back and forth for a moment, stumped for a simple explanation for what to them was more a spiritual conviction.

"Hearts are … the embodiments – some living, some not – of the magical energy inherent in the worlds throughout the infinite dimensions," Elyon started, sounding like she was giving a book report … with a head cold. She sniffled next, completing the image. Elizabeth Hale needed no other proof that _something_ bad had happened to her daughter. Whether this story of theirs was true or not … her thoughts were interrupted as Elyon continued.

"I'm not from Pequot, Missus Hale. My family is from another world, called Meridian by the inhabitants. I'm now its Queen. The girls helped me reclaim the throne from my brother, Phobos, who was a … _very_ unpleasant … jerk." She exchanged a strange look with Taranee, who had been staring at her ashen-faced since she'd started her 'confession'. At her thoroughly inadequate description of the former ruler of Metamoor, Taranee choked back a snort of surprise and almost grinned. Almost.

"I'm also the Heart of Meridian," Elyon continued. She held out her hand, palm up, and generated a small glowing purple globe of power. The gasps of the gathered parents overlapped, and Yan and Mira winced, while Peter backed up a few steps. As the others watched, she turned the violet orb into a large flat oval, and with a wave of her other hand over it, she created a painting on one side of the five girls in their Guardian forms, ranged from right to left in the order of their initials in their team name, W.i.t.c.h.

As everyone was exclaiming over her handiwork, she gave the reverse side a similar swipe, and the five W.i.t.c. appeared on the back in opposite order, in their Elemental forms. One more run of her hand around the edge created a simple wooden frame around the newly-created portrait, and Elyon handed it to Taranee with a watery smile. "Don't give up, T. We'll find out some way to save them; I promise," she whispered.

While the young queen turned back to deal with the parents again, Peter came forward and gave the painting a cautious poke. He looked up at his sister with a tremulous smile when he found it was as real as the floor he stood on. "Whoa," he said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Now that's magic …"

"If _any_ Heart can do that," Susan accused, waving a hand in the girls' direction, "what's so special about the Heart of Candracar?"

"Candracar lies at the hub of a multidimensional nexus, and so draws in the nascent, untapped energies of them all," Yan Lin started in, gaining a surprised and grateful nod from Halinor. "With Candracar's Heart, Nerissa would have been able to remake _worlds_." She paused while waiting for Susan and the other parents to process that.

"Ohmigod, Yan Lin, we've gotta go back!" Taranee gulped out "We … we've …" The bespectacled girl swallowed back fresh tears. "I've got to find the Heart."

"What? You mean it didn't come to you?" Yan Lin and her teammates looked at each other worriedly.

"It went straight to you when Cassidy was … hurt, I thought," Halinor asked the elderly Chinese woman. Yan and Mira both nodded, then she looked back at Cassidy. "Did you _tell_ it who to seek, Cass?" the former Fire Guardian continued.

"No," the red-haired water-maiden answered. "I remember the argument we had," _'All too well,'_ she added to herself. "And then Rissi just … lashed out." Cassidy hung her head. "The next thing I remember is reawakening to Nerissa's cajoling, and then we were all her zombies, 'til now."

"So, … if the necklace didn't go to someone else … maybe Will is still alive!" Susan latched onto that as a mantra, praying someone would take pity on her. Will was out there, she knew it. She surged to her feet, hope lighting her features.

"C'mon, Sue," Tom said, zipping his coat back up. "We'll draw less attention in my cruiser." As Dean and Cassidy fell in step behind them, Officer Lair looked back at Peter and Taranee. "You gonna be okay to drive, son?" Peter nodded back glumly.

"Tee, Elyon, you two ready to go back there?" He gave his sister another comforting squeeze on the shoulder. The two girls just stood, nodded, and started shuffling back towards the door. Halinor and Mira fell into step behind the three teens.

"I'll stay behind with the munchkins, Tom," Anna said from the kitchen doorway. Looking at the dining table, she quirked an eyebrow at the Hales. "Harold? Liz? Do you both want to go?"

"I'll stay too, hon; you and Cornelia have always been closer," Harold said, and gave his wife a faltering hug. Elizabeth nodded, and left with Kadma and the Lins in tow.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story. Even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

Chapter 4

The first few classes flew past, and the six teens regathered at lunchtime to recover and compare notes.

"God, Gen, I'm so gonna have to visit the Silver Dragon on weekends to keep learning Chinese. All they teach here is French and Spanish. Like nothing exists outside North America." Stephanie handed the dressing caddy down towards Nigel, who mumbled his thanks. "Now, I'm a year behind in a language class I wasn't even taking!"

Taranee gave her a reassuring nudge. "Don't sweat it, Steph. Elly or I can catch you up in a hurry, worse comes to worse," she said, tapping one of her temples. During the course of the morning, the young Guardians had found that Taranee's now fully-developed telepathy was easier to control if she used it for something specific. So she'd taken to playing mental switchboard with the other five kids as they went from class to class, which had saved three of them from walking into Mrs. Rudolph's surprise math quiz without any warnings. (Elyon and Gen had Math with her first hour, and passed on the bad news to the others as soon as possible.)

Alchemy meanwhile was bolting down her bowlful of homemade tuna-noodle casserole. She had fifteen minutes before becoming the new Voice of Sheffield's teen radio station, KSHP. She'd been both honored and mortified when the teens had come back to school yesterday, to find that Irma Lair had left explicit instructions behind. 'In case of illness or other incapacitation', the person she wanted to take charge of Lair on the Air was none other than Alchemy Jones. Mrs. Knickerbocker had taken that recommendation to heart, when informed of Irma's untimely demise. Now, Alchemy was fretting into her noodles, trying to think of a topic to spring on the lunch crowd.

"Chew, A.J. Choking will _not_ help your ratings," Elyon joked. Alchemy gave her a mock-glare.

"When are you gonna stop calling me that, _Your Majesty?"_ she returned, and flicked a noodle at the young Queen. Elyon ducked, and it stuck in Gen's hair.

"Five minutes, Alchemy," he said, looking at his watch after he dug the pasta out and threw it back at her.

"Why don't you just let the call-ins take up the show?" Nigel asked looking up from the paper airplane he was busy turning his napkin into. Since it was dotted by ketchup and soggy on one side with salad oil, he seriously doubted it would fly, but he was bound and determined to find out if it would.

"Actually, I was going to do that tomorrow.  After the assembly, ya know? But today is just a kinda, I don't know, 'let's just cope' day, I guess." Alchemy let her eyes fall to her now empty bowl, her thoughts straying back to her usual emo-goth ways.

"That's it! There's your show for the day." Taranee blurted and grabbed Nigel's hand; hauling him up with her as she got to her feet. "Come on, Alchemy. You intro the show, and Nigel and I will find you the music."

The other three traded quizzical looks as Alchemy followed the two lovebirds towards the school's sound booth with a bemused expression. Their unvoiced questions were quickly answered after Alchemy came on-air and stated that 'Lair on the Air' would return to its usual broadcast schedule in two days, but until then she had something for the students to think about. The Backstreet Boys "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" rang out next, and Elyon gave the two new kids a startled glance.

"That'll either be her ticket in, or her ticket out," Stephanie uttered, quietly drumming her fingers along with the sad farewell song. A surprising number of students started singing softly along, letting the trio know just how much their friends would be missed.

When Gen saw the tears spilling softly down Stephanie's cheeks he asked her who else she was crying for. She looked up sniffing quietly and said, "My parents died just before the Guardians did. I just never got to tell you guys about it. Other stuff was more important at the time. God knows I didn't want to play the sympathy card, like you did this morning in homeroom."

Gen had the grace to look abashed at the unexpected reprimand. Elyon meanwhile leaned in towards Stephanie, "Tell us about it?" the young Meridianite asked.

"Aw, #&)(," Stephanie sighed. The song finished, to be followed by "I Miss You" by Miley Cyrus, and then the penultimate dirge, "Where, Oh Where Can My Baby Be?"

"Well…"


	5. Chapter 5

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

Chapter 5

Tonight was the worst yet. She kept reliving the scene from three nights ago. She and her parents were walking over to the theater just four blocks from their apartment. The sun was already down, the wind was blowing bitterly cold, and there was a line for the ATM at the bank that led around the corner.

"Rick, why don't we just use the one inside the theater?" her mother nagged.

"Because when I called for tickets earlier all of their machines were still down from yesterday's blackout. It's probably why this line is so long too. It's the closest bank to the Cinema, Jane."

'_Oh, please don't fight,'_ she remembered thinking.

The line had snaked forward, her parents quietly sniping at each other all the while, until the trio was finally in front of the ATM. She remembered noticing that they were the last people in line, except for a rather sour-smelling man hanging back from the circle of light over the bank.

As her dad pushed his card into the machine, 'Smelly-guy' had suddenly rushed forward with a knife in each hand. He held one to her dad's neck, and waved the other menacingly back and forth between her and her mom.

"Give me whatever you can draw out," 'Smelly-guy' had rasped out.

Dad had paled and looked down at the tip of the large hunting knife that peeked out under his jaw. "Just… just don't hurt us …" Dad whispered, and started punching buttons for the maximum daily withdrawal.

"Way to show him some backbone, Richard," Mom had muttered as she glared daggers at 'Smelly-guy'.

"Shut it, 8!*(#; Purses!" 'Smelly-guy' demanded, holding the knife out blade flat so they could loop the shoulder straps of their purses over it.

"Why I'd never…" Mom started to stay.

"Listen to the man, Jane," Dad had asked softly, still waiting for the ATM to finish its work.

'Smelly-guy' had actually _laughed_. "Oh my god, I'm robbing Dick and Jane." He'd looked at her. "So I guess that makes you Spot; hand it over Spot." 'Smelly-guy' had waved his knife at her purse and she'd remembered giggling, even if it had been with an edge of hysteria.

"Sure, fine, here ya go," she responded, carefully looping her purse strap over the knife blade. "I don't think it'll do _you_ much good though, unless you're PMS-ing." She'd _just_ started her period, in _both_ senses, and her handbag was consequently stuffed to overflowing with feminine supplies. Even her electric blue Razr phone was at home on its charger.

"Get away from my daughter, creep!"

'_Oh god, Mom, not now!_' She turned to see her mother brandishing what looked to be a pellet gun at 'Smelly-guy'.

"Damn it Jane; this is _not_ helping…" Her dad started to say turning to see the gun she'd pulled from her purse. "Oh god, Jane, what are you doing? The ESCI isn't ready yet! Put that damned thing away!"

The ATM started whirring just then and 'Smelly-guy' pressed his knife into Dad's throat. "You heard the man, Jane; don't be a dick," 'Smelly-guy' said nastily. Jane's arms shook and her shoulders sagged in defeat; the gun now aimed at the ground. 'Smelly-guy' looked back at the ATM, which had just spat out the withdrawal, and his eyes widened. "Geez, your bank must love you guys…"

That was as far as he got before Rick leaned away from the knife and Jane snapped up the lowered gun, shooting 'Smelly-guy' in the leg. But instead of a bullet or BB's, the gun launched a pair of pins with wires trailing behind!

"_**OW!"**_ 'Smelly-guy' started swearing a blue streak, his arm reflexively tightening around her dad's throat. Dad grabbed a hold of the hand that was holding the knife to his neck and yanked away from 'Smelly-guy'.

"Now, Jane!" Rick cried, propelling 'Smelly-guy' toward the ATM. Mom hit the trigger a second time and voltage raced down the wires to the pins still stuck in their mugger's leg. 'Smelly-guy' lurched into the bank machine and when his knife dug tip-first into the card slot the resulting backlash of electricity from both the gun and the ATM machine fried him.

The mayhem didn't stop there, unfortunately. As he writhed between the two currents, he jerked violently, throwing the free knife back at his recent victims. She saw the blade coming right for her, screamed, ducked away, and hoped for a survivable wound. The expected '_schuk!'_ came, but no pain. Looking back up, she was horrified to find her father slumping before her, the knife wedged in his back at heart level.

Just as their eyes met, the ATM blew open, sending shards of glass, plastic, and steel showering over the four people. Her mom screamed, sounding just like 'Smelly-guy'. Looking up from her dying father in shock, she saw mom had been struck by the electrical backlash when the ATM exploded, and was as burned as the would-be mugger.

Dad grabbed her hand, making her look down at him again. She couldn't bring herself to say anything. Just staring back into his fading eyes was torture.

"Take care of your mom, Steph. I'll … 'cough' … watch over you …" Rick Payton's eyes closed and his last breath sighed out of his body. She knelt there, tears welling up and sobs pouring forth, still holding her father's hand amid the ruins of the bank wall. Her mother and their mugger smoldered nearby. That's how the Fadden Hills Police found her shortly, summoned to the scene by the ATM's automatic anti-theft alarm.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

Chapter 6

Matt came storming up to Alchemy after lunch on the way to their fifth-hour English class. "Nice music choices, Jones. Uriah put you up to that?" He stood blocking her locker, his brown eyes flashing green.

"No," she bit back, her own emotions still in turmoil. "That would be your bassist and his girl. You know, the _hot-tempered one?_ Now, get off my locker and get out of my face, Olsen; we're gonna be late for class."

Matt closed his eyes for a minute, uttered something under his breath, and replied, "No, we're not." When his eyes reopened, they were glowing green, and stayed that way.

Alchemy shivered as a cold feeling swept over her from head to toe, and she suddenly saw a second Matt – _and a second her!_ – proceeding into their English class. "I hate it when you do that," she muttered rebelliously. He grinned back sardonically, even as the bell rang.

"You're not as much like Irma as I thought. She'd use a 'drop or a glamour to get out of class in a heartbeat." His grin twisted. "So today's lunchtime entertainment was Nigel and _Taranee's_ idea, huh? Guess there's hope for her yet."

"Low blow, band-boy," Alchemy hissed. She pushed futilely at his larger frame in an effort to get to her locker. Even if they weren't going to be busted for being late, she still needed her books.

"_Mister Olsen, would you hand these back out to the class?"_ echoed out into the hallway. Matt swore and Alchemy smirked.

"Glamours're still not the shiznit, huh?" she goaded, shoving at his chest again. This time, at least, he went.

"Later," he muttered with a glare, and ducked into the classroom.

Opening her locker with a sigh, Alchemy grabbed her last two classes' books and checked her reflection in her tiny locker-mirror. An '_Eeeep_!' escaped when she found out what Matt had done with his glamour. She was see-through! _'Huh. No wonder the last couple people behind us didn't double-check after we'd walked into class … while still standing here.'_ She had a quiet laugh while shutting her locker, then stealthily followed him in. Sliding into her seat, and into the glamour already sitting there, she felt it pop.

She'd just taken her 'My Holidays' essay back from Matt and opened her Lit. book to the day's reading assignment, when a wave of pain, nausea, and dizziness swept over her. Through her slitted eyes, Alchemy could see Matt suddenly slump heavily onto Heather Weir's desk two seats in front of her.

"_T … T'ree …"_ she gasped telepathically. Taranee's only response, after several painful seconds, was to open up a link between all five of the new Guardians.

"_Everybody, lend your strength to Steph. She's the only thing keeping Elyon upright."_ Taranee's inner voice was agonized.

Alchemy took a few seconds to help bolster their newest teammate, then sent back, _"It's not just Elyon, T'ree. Matt's a casualty, too."_

She felt a fresh wave of concern sweep through the group, starting from Nigel. _"Can you reach him?" _the bass player asked._ "How bad is he?"_

Alchemy fought her way to her feet, concentrating on getting one step forward at a time, until she was next to the dark-haired teen Regent. When she grasped his shoulder, he turned to face her slowly, teeth gritted and narrowed eyes glowing. _"Whoa. I'll do what I can here, guys. Just concentrate on Elly."_ Alchemy withdrew herself from the telepathic connection to her team, and slid an arm around Matt's waist.

She cleared her throat. "Uh, Missus Van Dyke, Matt's not feeling too good. I'm gonna help get him to the nurse's office."

Their teacher looked up from her desk distractedly, and when she saw the young Olsen lad, barely standing even with Alchemy and the desk's support and sweating profusely in the air-conditioned classroom, she nodded at Alchemy. "Just hurry back, Miss Jones." The woman gave her pale blonde hair a flip with her hand to settle it over her shoulder.

'_Just like Cornelia,'_ Alchemy noted with a pang. Steering the two of them out of the door, she paused against the first support beam they came to and looked at Matt closely. "What happened, Matt?" she quietly asked.

He opened his mouth a couple times, trying to answer, then grasped her wrist where her arm was still holding him up. _"Tell the others to watch out." _His mental voice was as disturbing as his whitened complexion._ "Whatever that was _… is_… is after Hearts, Al. I gotta go. I gotta check on Lillian."_ With that, he strained himself upright, transformed into his Shagon form, and teletransported right out of her arms.

Glancing around belatedly for observers, she was relieved to see they had been alone. Figuring she better finish covering their tracks, Alchemy continued on to the nurse's office.

Five minutes and one exhausting conversation later, she was headed back towards English class as she'd intended, when she bumped into the rest of the Guardians and the Queen of Meridian coming around the corner. Elyon and Stephanie were leaning on each other at the back, being _hovered over_ (there were no other words for it) by … the _school nurse Nichelle?_ Alchemy blinked hard a few times, as everybody stopped in the hallway intersection.

"How … how ..?" she gasped, pointing tentatively at the only adult, and most of the other Guardians grinned. "But … I just left her office …" Alchemy squeaked accusingly.

"Missus Rudolph glamoured her up for us. We found her waiting when we helped Elyon out to the hall," Taranee explained.

"Well, let's go clear our story with the real Miss Nichelle," Alchemy replied. "She already knows about Matt leaving; _he Shagon-ed up and teleed out to check on Lillian."_ She whispered the last bit. "Which reminds me," she continued, turning to Stephanie. "Matt said whatever hit us is after Hearts. Mean anything?" Alchemy and the others all waited while Stephanie drew the Heart of Candracar reluctantly from the collar of her blouse.

With a quick glance around to make sure they were still alone in the hall, Stephanie let the magical jewel float out of her hand to eye-level. Her sea-blue orbs slowly unfocussed as she felt the disturbance they had all experienced once again. "There's something coming … from the … East … or … South ..? _Hungry_ … for power … _OUR power_ …" Her eyes flew open to find the others staring back, deer-in-headlights looks of fear on everyone's faces.

"You mean something's after us … _just 'cause we're Guardians?!"_ Alchemy's voice threatened to squeak again.

"Hey, nobody said being a superhero was easy," Nigel countered. He laid an arm over Taranee's shoulders. "What should we do, Beauty?" The others all turned to their veteran Guardian expectantly.

'_Now I know why Will hated being in charge,'_ the braided Fire-mistress thought to herself. "Standard Operating Procedure for now. We've only got a class and a half left to get through; Elyon, do you think you can hold up, or do you want to go '_home'_ early?" The others knew she meant a premature return to Meridian, which the Queen usually only went back to on weekends.

Elyon drew herself upright painfully, and gave the Guardians a tremulous smile. "I'll be all right, Taranee. Just … stay close, okay guys?" They all nodded back reassuringly. "So, back to S.O.P. We cover our tracks and when whatever-that-was shows up, we trounce it straight into the Bog of Eternal Stench. Sound about right?"

"Hopefully that is all it takes to keep the Hearts safe," Gen stated.

"If it isn't," Taranee responded, her glasses glinting with the fires in her eyes, "You can start feeling sorry for the bad guys. _Nobody_ messes with _my friends." 'Ever again!'_ she left unvoiced, but the others could read it in her expression.

"Amen to that," Stephanie said. She didn't see the worried looks Elyon, Alchemy and Nigel traded; this was _not_ the Taranee they knew.

Alchemy cleared her throat. "Back to class, then. See you in Science, Nigel." She walked off to English, with her stomach bouncing between throat-level and feet as anxiety warred with dread.

Nigel looped his free arm around Elyon and was about to turn the three of them around to return to Social Studies, when Elyon tugged him to a stop. "Actually, I still want to go see the nurse, Nige. I've still got a killer headache."

"Oh, thank God," Stephanie said quietly. At everybody's raised eyebrows, she just added, "What? I'm just glad to hear it isn't just me. With a headache, I mean …" Taranee and Nigel chuckled, and Elyon slid from his side to Steph's.

"Good. Let's go see the nurse, and these three can … oh, yes! _Hurry back and tell our teachers we'll return,"_ Elyon directed pointedly.

Gen gave Elyon a military salute, clicked his heels together, and gave a stiff bow. "At once, Your Majesty," he said as he straightened up, and then grinned. Nigel laughed harder, and Taranee rolled her eyes.

"It's good to be the Queen," Elyon deadpanned to Taranee with a wink.

"That's it; I'm coming over tonight, and I'm melting every bad comedy Irma ever lent Your Royal Behindness. _Starting_ with that one." The Fire Guardian tugged the guys in her wake as she marched – fast – back to class. She _was_ still chuckling, though.

Elyon and Stephanie started towards Miss Nichelle's office again, only to realize they were still leading a silent double of the woman around. "Uh, do you think you can do something about her?" Steph asked.

Elyon intoned something under her breath Stephanie was reasonably sure wasn't French, Spanish or Chinese, then waved a hand in front of herself like she was wiping a chalkboard clean. The glamour of the school nurse faded away, and Elyon stood perceptibly straighter.

"Wow. Erasing her cured my headache. How weird is that?"

"Bully for you," Steph grumbled. "Mine's still killing me, though, so could we _please_ go see the real thing?"

Elyon nodded abashedly, and the two continued on. After a minute, Elyon thought of something. Hoping it would distract the new Energy Guardian from her troubles, she jumped at the impulse. "Hey, Steph. How did you get the Heart of Candracar? Nobody told me when we – my family and I – came back from Meridian for New Years …"

"Seriously? Um … okay … It was the night W.i.t.c.h. fought that snake-guy …"

"Cedric," Elyon supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, him. There I was …" Her story continued through the trip to and back from the nurse's office, and Elyon was so engrossed, she didn't notice a distinctive pair of eyes following them on their walk …


	7. Chapter 7

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 7_

Susan had shown Stephanie into the spare room that, until two hours ago, had been a tiny emergency 'guest bedroom'. In all reality a ten-by-ten closet neither of the Vandoms had needed, it was plainly furnished, with just a twin bed and short six-drawer dresser that Steph vaguely remembered being in Will's old bedroom in Fadden Hills. She wondered whether their old crayon scribbles were still on the side, and grinned.

Just then, Will herself popped her head into the room. "OH! Steph, hey. Good, you're here. Listen, Mom just went to the store for some of those cheese raviolis we know you love. Go ahead and unpack what'cha managed to bring with, and meet me in my room, okay?"

Stephanie barely had time to nod before Will was back out of the doorway. Less than three minutes later, (she'd only managed to bring her two suitcases stuffed with winter clothes and underthings, after all, and those barely filled up the first four drawers,) she walked into a 'convention of ethnic diversity' in Will's room.

"HI!" squeaked a young Asian girl, fairly hugging the life out of her. "You must be Stephanie! I'm Hay Lin! I just wanted to be the first to say we're sorry to hear about your loss, and I'm glad you got to come here to stay, 'cause we'll help you, no matter what. You're part of the family now, and we're all behind you. Come on, meet the rest of W.i.t.c.h. …"

Stephanie let the babbling girl lead her towards the others, and saw Will rolling her eyes. She grinned back even as she was trying to remember names for later. These were obviously Will's friends here in Heatherfield, and unless she wanted to be even more of an outcast here than she'd become at home …

Steph ruthlessly squashed that thought. HERE was home, now! With Aunt Susan! With Will! With …

"… Irma Lair, her dad's a cop, Taranee Cook, super-genius, and her brother's just as cute, Cornelia Hale, Heatherfield's queen of high fashion, and ME! I'm the normal one. I like art and aliens and faeries and dragons and kung-fu movies and …"

Hay Lin was abruptly cut off as Irma put a hand over her mouth. "Don't mind her, she gets excited when she meets new people. Of course, she gets excited when she meets people she hasn't seen in over twenty-four hours, so that doesn't say much ..." Hay interrupted Irma by biting her hand. "HEY! Hay _Liiiin_! Great! Now I need a rabies shot, to go with the tetanus booster! And I thought Blunk was bad!"

"Who's Blunk?" Deathly silence filled the room as all five girls turned toward Stephanie, their eyes like deer caught in headlights.

"Uh, Blunk is this guy we know's pet monkey." Will was sweating as she started saying the story all five girls were concocting telepathically. "I work for the local animal clinic, and he brought in the monkey for some vitamins, and Irma was there, and Blunk scratched her. Yeah." _"Ya think she bought it?"_

"_Probably not. She _does_ appear to be smarter than Uriah."_

"_Well, duh. Honestly, 'a guy we know's monkey'? Come on Will, that _was_ lame, even when you take in to account our excuse-o-meters have been overused this last week_." Cornelia tossed her hair out behind her one-handed, letting it fall back in a splash of blonde highlights. "So, Stephanie, we already know the basics, I mean about your mom and dad and the will and Susan being your Godmother, and from the look of it you won't need nearly as much of my help as Will still does fitting in at school. (Will yelled "_Hey_!", and the other three girls laughed.) So, what else is there to know about the great Miss Payton?"

"Well, aside from being fashion-conscious, _sorry, Will!_ I like art and I was on the swim team back ho … back in Fadden Hills, just like Will, and … um … okay, I'll admit to it now. Hay Lin, you're not alone." Stephanie pulled up the bottom of her shirt to show the girls a small but tasteful quartet of oriental dragon tattoos. Each one was a different color, coiled in two pairs up and around her belly button, and were holding onto the sides of the yin/yang circle overhead, just under the seam of her training bra. Irma and Hay both scrambled forward to get a better look, 'Ooooh'ing and 'Aaaah'ing at the artistry. Taranee and Cornelia both just bit their lips and looked at each other in surprise, then away in an indefinable uneasiness. Will however …

"What the Hell?" Stephanie jerked her shirt down, surprised by the look on Will's face. "When did you get that?!"

"Oh, uh … last Birthday." Stephanie let her dark blonde hair, almost as long as Cornelia's, swirl in front of her face. "Dad and Mom were fighting again, and I got money from both of them instead of any gifts, and so I went down to that new place that opened next to Yin Long, the Karate Dojo. Well, they didn't have any designs I liked, and I remembered drawing this the week before in art class, right after this weird dream I had.

"So I took the drawing back up there, and the guy was like, "Sorry, kid, we cant give you a tattoo without a parent's permission." So I told him to give me the forms, and said my Dad worked right around the corner, and I'd be right back." She looked right at Will "You can guess how the story ends, anytime, Will." The Energy Guardian, who'd been turning mauve in an effort to not yell at her outright for several hundred reasons, just saw the look on her face, and deflated.

"Oh, God. 'Miss Artistic' here forged her dad's signature on a form to get a tattoo." Will buried her face in her hands, shaking with a horrible admix of laughter and sorrow.

"Great," Irma deadpanned. "I guess this means Hay'll have one by next week, now that she knows how."

"Have one what?" the Chinese girl asked innocently. The others W.i.t.c. girls just had to turn away, trying not to laugh right at her openly. Sometimes, Hay Lin really _was_ just too good for her own good. Fortunately, the young artist was already too busy begging Stephanie for another look at her tattoo, who sighed, resigned, and lifted her shirt-hem again.

"You drew this? This is _really_ good. Ooooh! Irma, we gotta show her my painting later! And just wait till she meets Elyon!" Hay Lin popped back upright again, a manic artistic jumping bean on speed. "Oh, the three of us will be able to kill outright at the next art show! I can't wait to tell Elias ..!"

Irma smothered Hay's mouth again from behind, this time with her other hand. She was wearing a glove, too. In fact, as Stephanie looked around the room, she noticed that the others were all getting dressed for the winter weather they could all hear billowing outside Will's window.

"Hat and gloves, Hay-hay. We've got an appointment to keep, remember?" Irma emphasized this by plunking an oversized neon pair of goggles on top of Hay Lin's twin ebony pigtails.

"Where are you guys going? Do ya want some company?"

"NO." Steph might have imagined it, but that had sounded almost _scared_, at the time. Nor was she ever sure which W.i.t.c.h. had said it, since they all had looked away at the same time.

"It's just something we gotta take care of, that we promised Hay Lin's grandma Yan we'd do." Will looked nervous. "Hey, can ya tell Mom I'll be back as soon as I can? I love it when she makes ravioli, and she even promised to make enough extra for lunch tomorrow, so we get 'em twice. Catch ya later, Sis!" She gave her newly-adopted sibling a parting hug and peck on the cheek, and was out the door behind her friends and halfway to the stairwell before Stephanie could so much as raise her arms to return the farewell.

"Catch ya later … Sis …" She had no idea at the time how prophetic her shiver of fear at their parting was.

_Angst_

Susan was back less than a half hour later, and Stephanie gave her the message as requested.

"I'm not surprised," Susan said, already heating up water for the pasta. "If I wasn't so sure that they were all good girls, I'd probably worry myself sick about Will. But I know they're out there doing some random act of kindness, like the one they told me about last week, so I'm just going to cook, wait, and yell at her when she gets home an hour after I've put everything away. Again."

"Random act of kindness?" Stephanie asked, bemused.

"Mmhmm. There was this news segment last month about a lost boy, who disappeared following his dog, and Will and the girls all insisted on joining the search, since they knew the family, and they're the ones who found the kid less than an hour later. And ever since then, they've been out and about, doing good deeds all over town. I hear some of the strangest thank-yous from different people I've never met, swearing that if it wasn't for my daughter, so-and-so in their family wouldn't be walking, or the family pet got found, or they didn't go hungry for Thanksgiving … Although, that's more the Lins than us, though Will did admit they helped deliver the 'Chinese meals on wheels'."

Susan paused in her rambling, seeing the strange look on Stephanie's face. "What is it?"

"Nothing, I think. It's just that, when they left, I asked if they needed a hand. They said no, but they acted weird about it, too. Said something about it being what they _had_ to do." Steph shook her head, thinking weird thoughts about karma. "If it's something Hay Lin's grandmother is making them do, I wonder what they did or didn't do before that this is their make-up job."

Susan, who was just dumping the ravioli into the boiling water, said "What, Steph?" Stephanie realized she'd missed the whole last statement.

"Just babbling, Aunt Sue. How long before it's food?"

Susan flipped the empty package over. "'bout twenty minutes. Why?"

"I guess I'll go empty out my e-mail quick. I haven't checked it since the funeral. God bless wi-fi, huh?" Stephanie stood up and went back to her roomlet. Knowing that Susan was going to get a monthly stipend from the Payton estate for her care, Stephanie wondered about the possibilities of the three of them finding a larger apartment. One with three rooms instead of two and a half, for example. Snickering, she pulled out her fuchsia laptop and powered up her e-mail.

'_Let's see, condolence, condolence, be the ten-thousadth respondee and win, new friend alert?'_ She opened that one, and smiled. It was from Hay Lin, about three minutes after they had left. She hit reply. _'DEFinitely a yes. Next mail is … 'New Chapter: May the Power Protect the Quaffle Chapter 5 by ThePink1… maybe later, what the?!'_ There was a burst of static across her screen, and a chat window opened.

**Froglegs13:**_ hey, sis, told you i'd catch ya l8r_

**PrincessS10: **_?!? dinner's almost done_

**Froglegs13:** _… not gonna make it home_

**PrincessS10:** _So, C U 2morrow, then?_

**Froglegs13**: _everrrrrrrr_ …

Another burst of static briefly engulfed the screen. As soon as it had cleared, Stephanie typed, frantic. Something was wrong. _Very wrong_.

**PrincessS10:** _Will, you're scaring me_.

**Froglegs13**_**:**__ don't be afraid for me_

_not anymore_

_touch the screen_

**PrincessS10:** _?!?_

**Froglegs13:** _touch_ _it_ _here …_

A giant **X** of static took over the screen. Heart pounding, she brushed one fingertip over the pattern of interference. Like one of those mad-scientist electron lamps, the static leaped from the screen to her hand, sucking her palm to the surface of the LCD. Before she could so much as scream, something _came out of the screen, … and INTO HER HAND!_

Looking in shock at the vibrant pink pendant on its pewter chain, Stephanie almost missed the next line of text on her computer.

**Froglegs13:** _it's the heart of candracar_

_use it well_

_stay safe_

_don't give it to anybody_

With that final missive, her whole computer coruscated with pink lightning, and died.

Stephanie stood up, her brain short-circuiting to match her laptop. She wanted to faint. She wanted to puke. She wanted to run screaming all the way back to Fadden Hills, where her worst problem was her dead parents. Just as she stumbled out to the hallway, there was a knock at the door.

Susan answered, after turning the burner off under the ravioli. "Hello? Oh! Hi, Yan Lin, were you looking for Hay? She and the girls are out doing their usual nightly good deed …"

Stephanie peeked around Susan from across the apartment, to get a better look at the mysterious Yan Lin. The ancient Chinese woman was stoop-shouldered, and from the looks of her expression, it was from more than just age. Her next words confirmed it.

"Susan, something has … happened. To Will. To Hay. And the other girls. Please, come with me. We've got to tell the Hales as well, and it's best all done at once. You … you'll need your coat …" The old woman started back towards the stairs, her slow steps sounding weary with a weight beyond words. Susan just blinked after her for a second, then turned to grab her coat and keys.

"Steph, I'll be right back. Go ahead and set the table for four, Dean said he'd be over as well, after all. I'll go find out what's keeping Will. I swear, if she's been arrested for trying to save animals from some lab …" The rest of her rant was lost to Stephanie as Susan shut the door, but she already knew that _that_ wasn't the problem.

No. Whatever it was, it was _much_ worse.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 8_

Nigel walked into sixth hour science with a wide smile and a renewed spring to his step. After nearly a month of worrying about Taranee, he'd finally seen signs today that she was, if not recovered, at least started on the road. W.I.C.H.'s deaths had nearly become her own in that first awful week. But today, he'd seen her smile, laugh, and even get angry – and crafty – over a magical threat.

To top it off, between classes just then, she'd pulled _him_ in for a kiss! Usually the initiator, Nigel had barely registered her intentions in time. He'd left no doubt about his feelings for her though; he'd swept her up and deepened the kiss until they were both breathless.

They'd gone surprisingly unnoticed as well. Aside from a giggling Elyon, the only other person to really look their way had been … Nigel wasn't sure of a name to put to the raven-haired girl who'd stared avidly at the pair of Guardians as they made out. She'd looked familiar, but he couldn't remember from where. As he thought about it, Nigel realized she'd looked _furious_ even as she watched them.

Settling down at his desk, he nodded absentmindedly to Alchemy and Stephanie … and then noticed that the mystery girl was sitting right in front of him! As he was turning to ask Alchemy who she was, Mister Dyvers came into the room in a hurry, and called the class to order while scrawling a long list on the blackboard.

"Okay, class, before we start, I'd like to introduce our new students to everyone who hasn't already met them. Stephanie Payton, from Fadden Hills, and Mary Rand, from Middleton. Ladies, if you could stand up, so everybody could see you? Thanks. And since you're both new, I'll go ahead and assign you as lab partners, alright? Now our next challenge is on the board, class. Everyone, open your books to page 128, the chapter on conductivity …" Mister Dyvers kept up like that for several minutes.

"_Does he always ramble on like this?"_ the raven-haired girl whispered to Nigel as she sat back down. He nodded back distractedly, already taking down the teacher's instructions. She giggled, and held out her hand to shake. _"I'm Mary,"_ she continued, adding _"new girl number two,"_ with a roll of her ice-blue eyes.

"_Nigel,"_ he returned, as they shook.

"_So … who was the girl molesting you in the hall before class?"_ Her grin was infectious.

"_Taranee. Taranee Cook, the brightest star in our grade,"_ he responded with pride.

"Taranee?" she blurted, her eyes going round. Every head in class turned her way, and she hunkered down to her own notes for a second, blushing. When she felt safe to look up again, she turned back to Nigel. "_Isn't she the girl who survived that building collapse last month? It was in the news in Middleton, how she and her friends rescued a dozen people from a fire before the end."_

"_Y-yeah …"_ Nigel replied, remembering that the rescue story, which he'd helped think up, was all that the general public knew of the circumstances surrounding the demise of Hay, Cornelia, Irma, and Will. It was _even_ close to true.

Early in the fight with Cedric, Hay Lin had noticed the late-night cleaning crew still slaving away in one of the nearby buildings. Thinking quick, she had used her Air-amplified voice, (along with the convenient duct-work of the place,) to prompt them to evacuate. It had turned out to be just in time, too, as one of Cedric's tail-swipes had finished off one corner of the foundation, and the building really _had_ caught on fire.

Unfortunately, the string of good luck had to end somewhere, and the three Regents of Earth had been too busy marshalling out (and modifying the memories of) those same people, and the trio hadn't been able to get back in time to save the girls when the building did finally collapse.

Stephanie meanwhile had turned to look at the other 'new girl' better when Mary said Taranee's name. Taking advantage of the preoccupied glaze overtaking Nigel's eyes - and conversational skills - she introduced herself formally to Mary, and struck up a session of 'girl talk'.

"… _and I know, one day isn't really long enough to get used to anyplace. But the eye candy is way better here than back in Fadden Hills, and I've already made a couple friends,"_ Steph said, smiling shyly.

"_DEFinitely agree about the dating pool,"_ Mary responded with a grin. _"Where I came from, the snakes and trolls were at the TOP of the hottie list …"_

Alchemy's hand motions caught Stephanie's attention. When 'new girl number one' looked at her, Alchemy sent telepathically _"I cannot BELIEVE you are sitting there talking about the dating pool in the middle of everything we've got happening!"_

Stephanie shrank back at Alchemy's scathing invective, and muttered something about _"Keeping up appearances …"_ under her breath. Nigel was the only one who caught it, and passed it on to Alchemy in a hastily scribbled note. Alchemy looked down at her still-clenched hands for a second, and then breathed out a silent _'Sorry.'_ Mary watched all this with raised brows, and just turned back to finish taking notes for the day's assignment with a distracted air.

When the pair of new girls finally went to the lab tables in the back to start on the practical part of the experiment, Mary leaned in and asked. "Is she one of those new friends?"

"Book's still out on Alchemy," Stephanie sighed. "Nigel's okay, though, and Taranee's great. She and my step-sis were the new girls last year, and they became best friends." She held her hand out. "Let's hope we can keep the trend going." She and Mary shook on it.

"I'd like that," Mary said with a small grin. The two worked in silence for a few moments, uncoiling small lengths from a coil of copper wire. "So who's your sister? I'll have to keep an eye out for her in my other classes. 'Course, it'll have to wait for tomorrow …" Mary's voice trailed off at the stricken look on Stephanie's face. "Steph? What's wrong?"

"My sister … is … was … Will. Will Vandom." The new Wielder of the Heart of Candracar felt a sudden surge of hot grief, as she realized that here was a fresh set of experiences she'd never get to share with Will. New friends, and all the joys and sorrows of getting to know them, were far outside her sister-in-spirit's reach now.

Mary managed to stutter out "Wasn't she … one of … one of the four …" She couldn't finish the sentence out loud, and Stephanie's only answer was a miserable nod. "Whoa. Harsh."

Steph felt the now-familiar touch of Taranee's mind within hers. _"Hey, GF. You okay? Even _I_ felt the drop your heart just took."_

Using a tissue from her ready supply, Steph answered haltingly. _"Yeah, T'ree, just … failing miserably at not thinking about Will. I just met the other new transfer student, from Middleton. Her name's Mary, and I was telling her how you and Will were the new girls last year, and became … became friends …"_

The wave of sympathy and sorrow Taranee sent back was reply enough. "_So_ …" Taranee continued, as eager for the distraction as her teammate. _"Another new girl, huh? What's she like?"_

Steph thought her answer over for a few seconds, during which she and Mary were busy connecting their loops of wire to two batteries and a trio of old keys. _"Actually,"_ she thought back, nearly fumbling the second battery due to the loose fit of her oversized rubber gloves. _"She reminds me of how you described Irma: a friendly, joking chatterbox obsessed with boys. At least, that's the impression I'm getting so far."_

Taranee's mental laughter rang back. "_You know, Steph,"_ the young Fire Guardian replied finally. _"That's exactly how Will always described _you!"

"Hey," Mary asked, looking up from her notesheet. "What's so funny?" Stephanie realized she'd been chucking out loud.

"Sorry, just a funny thought." She didn't add that it wasn't _her_ thought.

The rest of class flowed by glacially, with Mary asking questions about the students and teachers Steph already knew, especially after the two compared schedules, and found they had every other class together. When asked why they hadn't met earlier, Mary confessed she'd slept late, and her mom had taken forever to fill out the paperwork in the office. She hadn't started a class until after lunch, only to walk into the 'pop quiz from Hell' in fifth-hour math. Stephanie sympathized, grinning the while.

With the bell's ring, the school emptied out for the day. Even the teachers hurried to their cars in the cold afternoon air. Unfortunately, the full day's worth of sun hadn't cured the bitter chill that still hung over Heatherfield from New Year's storm. Once most of the rest of the student body had cleared out, Elyon and the new Guardians converged on Dean Collins' car. The history teacher grinned wryly at the furtive expressions each wore as they climbed into the back seats of his PT Cruiser.

"Oh, the horror!" he teased. "Riding home with a … _'gasp!' …_ teacher!" The six kids all gaped at him, mortified, until Taranee saw the grin he was fighting to hide, and started laughing. The others caught on as he joined her, and relaxed. "That's better. Now, where to, gang? The Silver Dragon?"

"_Bu,"_ Gen said, looking down. "Aunt Joan and Uncle Chen have expressed their displeasure with Kandrakar's _jueding_ by saying 'No more Guardian meetings under our roof'." He shook his head in resignation, as did Dean. Everyone else looked at Stephanie first, and she translated the unfamiliar word. _(__**Author's note: **__'bu' = 'no', 'jueding' = 'decision')_

"Susan's of a like mind at the moment," Dean sighed. "You'll have to keep under the radar a little while longer, Steph." Teacher and student's eyes met briefly in shared sorrow. Ever since Dean, Tom Lair, and Elizabeth Hale had sided with the newest and the elder Guardians, citing vigilance over protectiveness or grief, Susan, Anna, Harold, and the younger Lins had turned blind eyes and deaf ears anytime the kids had tried to discuss the situation with them. It didn't help matters, especially in Joan and Susan's opinions, that the other new Guardian's parents, aside from Gen's, still weren't 'in the loop'.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 9_

"_What do you think the Oracle will do, Halinor?"_ The former Fire Guardian looked up and around for the source of the unfamiliar mental voice. After a few seconds, she spotted her successor looking back her way from around the remains of a cracked marbled pillar.

"_I honestly can't answer that, Taranee. We've been so busy here, none of us have been back to Candracar to appraise them of our problem."_ Halinor hung her head again, then, remembering their current objective, started looking under the nearby rubble for anything pink and glowing.

The anxious group of teens, parents, and elder Guardians spent the last hours before daybreak looking for any signs of the fallen four or, increasingly as the night progressed to day, the Heart of Candracar. Several times during the search, a small group would gather together, pool their energy, and mount a different kind of search.

Cassidy was the one who thought of it, when she remembered a similar hunt for a wounded Nerissa many years before. Calling Kadma, Taranee and Yan Lin over to where she was sifting rubble with Matt, (who, along with Nigel, had stayed behind to keep looking while the others dealt with the parents after the battle,) she proposed her idea.

With a wielder of each element together, each with ties to the four missing girls, Cassidy had them call on their inner energy, and use it together to call to Will, Irma, Cornelia and Hay Lin. It was her hope that the elemental boost would bring them luck, either to find a sign of what had happened to the girls, or – worst come to worst, their final resting places. It was all to no avail, and Taranee stated her dispersion theory again quietly after the second failed attempt.

Later, as despair started to set in anew for the parents, Elyon decided they better try the same kind of hunt for the Heart of Candracar. Gathering Taranee, Cassidy and Matt again, she led them over to Kadma, who was leaning heavily on the Staff of Zamballa. Putting her diadem carefully back on, Elyon bade each of them concentrate on the Heart that empowered them, and linked them together as a living Heart-detector.

There was a brief surge of hope shortly, as they detected not one, but _two_ nearby signals. Their spirits quickly fell when the two turned out to be Napoleon (who was spending an equal amount of time searching the rubble and hiding from Elizabeth Hale,) and Will's dormouse, Mister Huggles (who had fallen asleep 'guarding' Susan's purse.) The only other sign the five could sense was a faint flicker of power from the direction of the Vandoms' apartment. They dismissed it out of hand, due to the weak level of energy, as just a residual trace from the many times Will had used the Heart at home. It didn't occur to them until later that neither the Silver Dragon nor Sheffield Institute had registered as Heart 'hot-spots'.

They found only one set of remains. Where the Queen and the former Guardians had reappeared from Nerissa's imprisonment, they found the crumpled body of Phobos, surrounded by the seared, exploded and crushed leftovers of Cedric's demise. With a vicious sweep of her hands, Taranee burned away those last remainders of her friends' final serpentine foe to ash, then crumpled against Nigel with a hoarse wail of despair.

Elyon stared down at her dead brother's body for several moments, saddened by the choices he'd made that had led him to this finale'. With a slow gesture of her own, she transmuted his once-fine robes to beggar's rags, and walked away. At Matt's questioning glance, she shook her ringed braids. "Let him be buried here anonymously. Meridian need never fear him again." Napoleon gave her an approving nod before he went back to the search.

Head hung in sorrow, Elyon performed one last task at Taranee's bidding. As a contingency plan, the searchers had agreed to add to the Regents' account of the girls rescuing the late night workers. But now they had to leave signs of their fallen heroes, and they had to wait for just the right time. As soon as the parents started trickling away in exhausted pairs back to the line of cars, Napoleon and Matt quietly brought Taranee and Elyon four dead rats found throughout the wreckage.

"Isn't this illegal? Like counterfeiting evidence?" Elyon shuddered as she asked, transforming the first rat. She gulped when she noticed that Taranee was only giving each of her gruesome works the briefest of glances, to confirm their visage's accuracy.

"Only in the sense that we're creating an answer in order to keep away a whole lot of other unanswerable questions," Matt returned, as she worked the last spell, and he had to turn away. Taranee had broken into sobs, and he had to fight back his own for a little longer. He nodded glumly at Peter Cook before the high-school basketball star slowly escorted his sister away.

Busying himself with the Regents' part of their last unpleasant task, he glamoured the area around Elyon, himself, Napoleon, and Huggles invisible while the black cat transformed the trio into their warrior forms. Then the three lifted a large nearby chunk of the fallen building. Matt nodded miserably to Elyon, and the Queen of Meridian levitated the four transformed bodies into the exposed space. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she ran after Taranee from the hellish scene.

Earth's Regents, eyes averted, let the slab drop back down with a sickening wet crash. Then, dropping the glamour, all three teletransported out of the demolished building, each with heavy hearts. Matt would never be able to walk past that area, even after it had been rebuilt, without seeing in his mind's eye the last image of Cornelia, Hay, Irma and Will's still bodies laying below him before he and the others dropped that slab. It was a necessary evil he would carry till the end of his days.

_angst_

Reconvened at the Hale residence, the parents of the fallen teens were railing against the remaining young heroes and the elder Guardians. Mostly they were decrying about the secrecy, but Harold and Joan stabbed the weight out of that argument with the larger issue of mere children having to risk their lives in this insane fighting. Anna, Chen and Susan added their voices to that effort, and the former Guardians could only counter that the Champions of Candracar were ever chosen from among the young and resilient, as their bodies could more easily adapt to wielding the magic. Dean stopped trying to mitigate further at that point, while Cassidy, who'd been silent throughout, just hung her head. _She'd_ been one of Candracar's young victims, too.

"Look, this is getting us nowhere," Tom Lair said, with a quelling glance around the room and a significant look down the hallway where Chris and Lillian were still asleep. He hoped. Lord knew all the screeching had probably woke the two kids up, by now. "Let's just … table this for now, gang. Everybody go home, get some rest, and we'll continue this on Saturday." He grasped Dean Collins' shoulder for a second as the mustached man passed him.

"I want to say thanks, Dean. You didn't have to jump into the middle of this, but you did anyway. And I like to think you've kept a better perspective of the situation than some of us have. It isn't gonna be easy to deal with, especially with Susan's new guest in residence." Tom took a deep breath. "Do her … do them both a favor, okay? Try to keep Sue from falling off either side of the line with … with …" He looked at Dean helplessly.

"Her name's Stephanie, Tom. Don't worry, I'm gonna stick close to Susan. She'll need both of us to pull through; Will was her whole world, and I'll be the first to admit I always felt like an intruder. Stephanie's as good as family to Sue and Will, and I'm gonna try to help them both get through this." Dean looked worriedly over at Susan Vandom, who was sobbing quietly into one of Elizabeth's expensive throw pillows, the too-young former Water Guardian trying to console her. Something about the redhead kept nagging at him, but he left it for later. "I'll try to get her home in one piece, for now. That should be enough of an accomplishment for one night."

Taranee watched from across the room as their history teacher cajoled Will's mom up and out the door. She knew their relationship was stronger than Will had ever wanted to acknowledge, but she wondered if it would survive this. Peter came back with her requested glass of water, and she gulped it down without stopping. Her throat hurt after all the crying she'd done, and she knew she wasn't finished. But she was determined to save her true breakdown for home, where she could wallow in a good long grief-fest without her parents - or anyone else's – checking up on her for a little while. She just hoped she could keep her overprotective brother at bay.

A quiet knock at the door got everyone's attention, and Taranee gasped in shock when Thomas and Eleanor Brown, the two Meridian natives who had posed as Elyon's parents while the three hid here on Earth, walked in. As far as she had known, the two were still in Meridian, organizing the resistance to Phobos' latest (now failed) power-grab. If they were here already, it must mean …

"Mom! Dad! What are you doing here?" Elyon's thoughts had taken the same thread as Taranee's.

"Picking you up to take you home, young lady. A friend told us you'd been stranded here all night." Eleanor leaned over and petted Napoleon, who gave a falsely hearty _'meow'_ before walking down the hall and butting his way into the room Elyon knew Lillian was in.

"Was he outside again?" Harold asked, pointing after the sable tom. Thomas Brown just nodded his head after a second with a small grin. "I swear that cat was Houdini in a former life. I find him in some of the darndest places." Elyon and Taranee shared a brief glance, and had to hide their tremulous grins.

None of them had mentioned the true identity of Earth's Heart, yet, and they were determined to keep it that way for as long as they could. Elyon especially didn't want Elizabeth and Harold Hale to know that their younger daughter was at just as much mystical risk as Cornelia had been.

"You ready, sis?" Taranee looked up to see Peter holding her jacket out to her. Hanging her head, she nodded miserably.

"Not really, but …" She stood and pulled her oversized coat back on, then shuffled back towards the door. With a final sad wave to Elyon and the elder Guardians, she followed her brother back out to his used subcompact.

Elizabeth meanwhile had brought the Browns up to date about the fate of the other Guardians, fleshing out the bare-bones version Napoleon had told them back in Meridian before he'd brought them back to Earth. Eleanor broke down crying, and Thomas pulled his adopted daughter into a protective hug as her own tears threatened again. Tugging her slowly back towards the couch Cassidy and Susan had vacated, he settled them both down, and waited for Elyon to regain a semblance of control.

Once her breathing was (almost) back to normal, Elyon looked up at her father and Captain of her Royal Guard. "So what happened in Meridian, Dad?"

"Well," Thomas started, only to become conscious of the large number of people in the room suddenly paying attention to them. _'Ahem!'_ "Once Cedric took Phobos out of the picture and charged off to fight the Guardians, the remaining Knights of Vengeance were all taken down in short order. Well, almost all: Gargoyle is kind of habitating the old quarry-grounds now, and since he seems pretty content to live and let live if left to his own devices, we've all decided to just leave him be. I did warn him that you would take it personally if he caused any more trouble." Father and daughter traded smiles briefly.

"The Lurden army fell apart pretty quickly without any higher leadership," he continued. "Most of them just stopped fighting after Cedric left anyway, and the only holdouts at the end were Frost and Miranda." He paused for a moment, his expression suddenly serious. "Honey, we need you to come back. Frost and Vathek practically killed each other, and even our best healers aren't strong enough to heal their wounds. Galghieta thinks that if _you_ heal Frost, he'll be more amenable to switching sides. Or at least surrendering without any more problems." He grimaced, and Elyon noticed him holding a hand to his left side. At her worried expression, he just shook his head. "Just a flesh wound, honey, and _it_ was easy enough to heal. It's just a little tender still, that's all."

"What about Miranda?" Elyon finally asked, knowing something must have happened with the were-spider, as well. Thomas looked over at Eleanor questioningly, as she'd been leading Elyon's loyal forces while he had been dealing with the two severely wounded blue men.

Coming over to the couch finally as well, Eleanor sat down on the other side of Elyon. "Miranda and I were about evenly matched for the longest time, once she got separated from Cedric. The Lurdens following her had their hands full with Drake, Aldarn, his father, and Julian. When she switched forms and took off for the Red Forest, I chased after her, but … she got away, honey. Not to worry, though, everybody knows who she is now, and I doubt she'll find shelter anywhere on Meridian." She gave her daughter a reassuring hug, and stood back up. "Are you ready to return, Your Majesty?" she asked, overly formal all of a sudden, and seeming _very_ out of place in the Hales' living room.

"Sh-sure," Elyon responded, remembering her father's news about Vathek. The others backed away as the Browns all stood, and Elyon gave Elizabeth a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Missus Hale, we'll be back. And we won't give up. The others are out there somewhere, and we'll find them."

The remaining Guardians' parents watched in renewed amazement as Elyon created a fold in the center of the Hales' living room, and the Browns departed through it back to Metamoor. The fold stayed open for several seconds after they were gone, then popped out of existence, and Elizabeth gasped. Where the tear in reality had been was another painting. This one was in a cherry-wood frame, and featured Cornelia in her Guardian form holding one of the blue crystal flowers Caleb was fond of gifting her with.

"H-Harold? Harold, honey … could … would you … please?" Correctly interpreting her unfinished request and her vague, nervous gestures, Harold Hale gingerly picked up the priceless picture … to reveal the two that were underneath it.

Framed by driftwood, Irma Lair's smiling face shone out of a simple oval portrait. Tom picked it up mutely, and gave a startled snort of laughter, tears springing to his eyes as he read the inscription Elyon had filigreed in what looked to be real gold leaf. Everyone else asked him what was up, and all he could do was pass the painting around. Inscribed like a necklace under Irma's carefully-rendered chin was the simple legend: _'Irma Lair. Caution, actual size, but larger than life.'_ And under her picture …

Yan and Mira sank to their knees at the sight of the amazing tribute Elyon had bequeathed to honor Hay Lin. The Air Guardian's vivacious image was centered in a diamond-shaped frame of woven black bamboo. She was rendered in her uniform, her wings, hair and dress all flowing behind her in a perpetual windswept image. In each corner of the diamond were the faces of her fellow Guardians, all smiling towards their youngest, most vibrant teammate.

Cassidy, who'd once held a similar distinction amongst her own team, sank down crying beside her onetime best friend, who was now suddenly one of a mystical pair of twins. The three women wept unashamedly. Halinor and Kadma joined Chen and his wife around them, and were soon followed by Tom, Harold, Anna and Elizabeth, the last two clinging to the portraits of their lost girls for dear life as they sobbed.

"Hey, why's everybody crying?" a child's whiny voice asked, jolting the distraught group out of their wallowing. It was Lillian, with Chris trailing close behind.

"_Remember the cover story, Officer Lair,"_ a quiet voice said at Tom's elbow. He gave a brief glance that way, to see the red-eyed elderly woman with blonde hair. (Tom thought her name was Helen, or something like it.) She gave him a nod, and nudged him towards the pair of bleary-eyed kids in the hall. Lillian had her arms wrapped under Napoleon's front legs, holding him tight against her tiny body, and Halinor could read the resigned patience in the much-put-upon familiar's eyes without having to resort to her telepathy.

Tom looked down at his sleep-creased son, standing next to his tow-headed agemate, and still wrapped up in his jean jacket from the night before. (It had been the first thing Anna had grabbed from the closet when they'd left their house last night, and Chris had fought them too much in his sleepiness when they'd arrived at the Hales' to bother pulling it back off of him.) Dropping his uniform hat on a nearby coffee table, Patrolman Lair knelt down in front of the two six-year-olds and set a gentle hand on a shoulder of each one. He'd hoped never to be the officer delegated to deliver this kind of news, and especially not to someone he knew. Now …

"Chris, Lillian, I've got something I have to tell you. There's been an … accident. A terrible accident. Your sisters and their friends … they … well, they're … dead." Chris gaped at him, and Lillian turned pale as a ghost. Her grip on Napoleon tightened until Yan was afraid he would start yelling and blow his 'cover' as a normal housecat. To her relief, he just gasped and gave an aggrieved _'mrow'._

"What happened?" Chris asked, suddenly the braver of the two, instead of the sly one.

"A fire," the blonde elder Guardian started. "In a building near the Silver Dragon. They saved a bunch of people, but the girls didn't make it out." She stepped towards them as well, her eyes haunted. Cassidy knew it was because Halinor had been the one to tell Cass' family of her untimely demise those many years ago. She'd often wondered how they had taken the news.

She knew that her mother Emily had stayed in Heatherfield all these years, whether from a desire to be close to the memory of her fallen daughter, or apathy. Her sister Daphne however, older by a decade and already married to her uptight suitor Donald, had moved to Middleton with a son named … Cassidy's eyes snapped up to glare at Yan Lin. Her best friend before and during her time as a Guardian, Yan was the only one who could have _known_ that Dean Collins, _Susan's_ oh-so-solicitous _Dean,_ … was Cassidy's _nephew!_

She was about to pull Yan up to start interrogating her when the sound of Christopher and Lillian both sniffling brought her back to their present predicament. _'The children,'_ Cassidy thought in horror, remembering how Nerissa had thought to guile her with her old desire of becoming a pediatric nurse.

She was kneeling next to Tom in a heartbeat, gathering the two teary-eyed first-graders into her arms before Lillian had time to do more than say "They're … _dead?"_ Her muffled voice continued piteously from behind Cassidy's shoulder. "All … _'gulp' … all of them?"_

"Not all, Lillian," Tom said gently. "Taranee made it out. And she saved Elyon!"

"She saved me, too," Cassidy hastily added, for the benefit of the two kids. If they were going to have to rewrite her life, they might as well start now. "I'm Cassidy, you guys. I was Irma's tutor in science class. I worked for the company that the girls saved everybody from last night, too. Hay Lin was bringing me my dinner from the Silver Dragon, and I was meeting the other girls for the first time tonight. Then the fire broke out, and everybody started running for the exits, and Elyon twisted her ankle. Cornelia and Irma got Elyon and me out, and then went in to help others. They were still looking for lost people inside when the big pillar in the middle of the building, the one that holds the whole thing up, broke in the heat, and it all collapsed. Taranee was holding the door for the last two people as they made it outside, but Cornelia, Hay, Irma and Will …" Her own sobs mixed with those of the other parents and the two kids.

Chris eventually pushed out of her grip, defiant glare following the eyes of his parents as they looked from him to Lillian to each other and back. "Well, Taranee always was the smart one; it makes sense _she_ got out."

"Cornelia was just as smart!" Lillian cried, whipping around to face him. Cassidy fell back from the two angry kids, dumbfounded. "T-T'ranee was just luckier!" She stomped her tiny foot on Tom Lair's uniform shoe. "And they're _NOT_ dead! They can't be! I know it!" She took off for her room again, and yelled even louder, _"I KNOW it!"_ Napoleon gave the elder Guardians a plaintive, hapless '_mew_?' as she carried him away and slammed her door behind her.

"Well. That could have gone better," Elizabeth voiced hollowly.

"In both their defense, I don't think right after they woke up was the best time to tell them," Anna gently told her husband. Tom shook his head sadly, then set his hand on his son's shoulder.

"Come on, buddy, let's go home for now. There'll be plenty of time to deal with the rest of this later." He looked up glumly at the other gathered former Guardians and parents. "What do you all say to meeting at the Silver Dragon tonight for a late dinner, say … nine-ish? We can talk about this after we've all caught up on some sleep. Well, those of us who _can_ sleep …" He waited to see the assent or refusals from each of them, then gently guided his wife and Chris out the door.

"Chen, Joan, don't worry about tomorrow night. We'll take care of everything," Elizabeth said, looking worriedly at the Chinese family as they huddled miserably in front of the doorway as well, needing to get home and rest after their harrowing evening, but loath to go and admit the finality of it all. Yan and Mira looked tiredly back at 'their' old teammates, the now-'twin' Air Guardians seemingly shrunken by the years they'd endured in this one night.

Halinor nodded back reassuringly, helping Kadma to stand again and pulling Cassidy to her. "We'll get out of your hair till tomorrow then, Harold, Elizabeth. Thank you for your hospitality." The three former Guardians followed the Lins out slowly, only to pause in the hallway outside the door.

"What now, Halli? I can't go home yet. Aside from everything else, it's only five in the morning." Cassidy's whisper was loud and harsh in the otherwise silent building.

"Back to Candracar for the three of us, dear." Halinor opened a fold, then sagged noticeably against the other two's shoulders.

"You should have let me take care of that," Kadma admonished. "At least until I take this back," she added, tapping the Staff of Zamballa on the carpeted floor. The women passed through to Candracar, as unsure of their welcome 'home' as they had been at the Hales'.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 10_

Finally settling on spending an hour practicing their powers at Shell Cove, Dean drove the newest Guardians and Elyon to the shoreline park. An exhausting workout later, the six teens (Elyon had decided she better start honing her various powers as well,) all followed a chuckling Dean back out to his Cruiser.

"Are you sure playing 'target' is the best way to improve your abilities, Your Majesty?" he asked, handing Elyon the towel from his car's roadside emergency kit.

"Hey, for the girl who used to be picked last for dodgeball in gym class for years, I think I've come pretty far," she returned, accepting the towel with a grateful smile. She finished wringing out her two braids, and started in on her hair with vigor. Taranee and Nigel conjured a warm gust to flow around her to counter the winter chill now that they were out of the cave, and between the towel and the breeze, she was dry again in short order.

Dean acknowledged her gym statement with a nod. It was true; she'd only been tagged once in the teen's hour workout, right before he'd called "TIME!" for them. It had taken all five of them working together, too.

Utilizing their extensive educations, Taranee and Alchemy had collaborated with Steph and Nigel to generate a miniature storm around the young Queen while Gen kept her from flying with some quick-growing seaweed out of the tide-pools that were spread throughout Shell Cave. Then Taranee directed Stephanie and Nigel in distracting Elyon with lightning (actually more light than electricity, but they looked real enough from Elyon's viewpoint at the time) and mini-tornadoes, while Gen aided Alchemy in levitating several of her Water-globes behind the young Meridianite, and dousing her.

"That was the most fun I've gotten to have in weeks," Elyon added, obliquely referring to her forced incarceration in her own jewelry, and then the saddening circumstances after her emergence. "It's the one thing I think I regret the most about," she continued, looking over at Taranee. "If I'd found out about my powers when you five had, and we had gotten to practice them together, we could have _really_ given my brother a run for his money." Seeing Taranee's suddenly crestfallen expression, Elyon hastily amended, "Hey, water under the bridge, T." She knew that the Fire Guardian had been one of the first to side with Cornelia about telling Elyon the truth before Phobos had taken her to Meridian, citing 'Forewarned is forearmed'.

Both grinning at her deliberate pun, the two girls were just closing the distance between them for a conciliatory hug, when all the teens doubled over. Brought low by a second attack from whatever had come over them during fifth hour, most of the teens toppled safely into the snow-covered sand. Dean had to jump around the front of his PT Cruiser to keep Alchemy from bashing herself senseless on the bumper, however. Holding her up, he watched helplessly as Alchemy and the others all cried out in anguish.

With a sharp shake of her head, Alchemy snapped upright in his arms. Glaring around, she practically clobbered Dean as she vaulted out of his arms and back around his car to Elyon's side. He noticed that as she passed each of the others, the attacks on them seemed to stop, and their bodies relaxed again. He also saw that each teen had involuntarily let loose with their individual elements in extremis.

Where Gen sat, a wavering ring of beach grass had sprung to unlikely life in the snow around him. The air around Stephanie was swirling with a cloud of animated snow and sand. Dean could feel the suddenly-generated slush under the spot he'd held Alchemy soaking into the knees of his trousers. The greatest disturbance was where Elyon, Nigel, and Taranee lay in a triangle of debris, each within a handspan of the other two. The ground around them was wind-blasted and superheated, as if someone had used a shaped incendiary charge to blow a hollow in the beach under the trio. The sand beneath them had been melted to cracked glass in the form of a three-sided bowl.

Nigel was the last of the new Guardians to revive from the attack. Sitting up, he found Steph and Gen leaning over him worriedly. "Are you okay?" the Heartwielder asked. Nigel nodded, and immediately regretted moving his head.

"Owwww." He gingerly cradled his aching skull, and looked past the other two to see what had befallen Elly and Taranee. "You okay, Beauty?" Taranee looked over from where she was, crouched and shivering in her corner of their crater.

"I will be. Thanks to Alchemy. Elyon?" Alchemy was holding the young Queen's head in her lap.

"She's out still, but her pulse is strong, and I can't find anything broken." Alchemy looked up at Taranee. "Can you _hear_ her?"

Concentrating, Taranee became aware of the faint background murmur of Elyon's mind, just under the expectant wondering of the other five people around her. The poor Meridianite sounded like she was in an exhausted sleep, but otherwise unharmed. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Fire Guardian stood slowly, feeling all eyes on her. _'God, I really _hate_ being the one with all the 'experience','_ she thought once again. "She's just asleep, gang. And she's gonna want a Powerade in the worst way when she wakes up. For the electrolytes," she answered the unspoken question from at least two of the others. Then Taranee shivered again, and Nigel fought his way up and towards her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and guiding her up from their glass pit and over to the car.

Dean had grabbed the two blankets out of his emergency kit, and watching Taranee shudder, he wrapped one around her and Nigel and told them to climb in back with Stephanie. Draping the other over Elyon's sleeping body, the history teacher lifted her up, bade Gen and Alchemy climb in as well, and slid Elyon across their laps carefully. "Just get the middle belt around her," he advised, getting in and starting up the engine, then kicking the heat all the way up once the engine had cycled for a couple minutes. The PT Cruiser slowly warmed the snow-spattered teens through, and Dean looked in his mirror at Taranee.

"Can you call the Browns' house, Taranee?" he asked for courtesy's sake. He knew very well that she had probably sensed the question in his mind before he'd even thought to voice it out loud, but for simple appearances, and for the sanity of the newer Guardians, he made pains to keep interacting with the Fire Guardian as normally as possible.

"Sure, Mister Collins," she responded vocally and mentally, and he knew he was getting an answer to both of his queries. He couldn't have been prouder of her if she'd been his own daughter at that moment. Even her predecessor Halinor had said Taranee was leaps and bounds more well-adjusted to her powers - and their consequences - than the blonde woman had ever been, and they had been active Guardians for close to ten years before Nerissa's betrayal and Cassidy's untimely demise.

The wayward thought of his erstwhile aunt gave him a moment's pause, and he barely heard Taranee's conference call with Eleanor Brown from the back seat. He still had trouble adjusting to the fact that his Aunt Cassidy, ten years older than _him_, was suddenly physically only ten years older than the teen Guardians he was (hopefully) dating the mother _of_. Well, stepmother anyway. And just like that, he was back to reliving the first awful morning after the last battle of W.i.t.c.h.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 11_

Dean walked Susan up to her apartment, wondering if it would be safe to leave her home alone. Then he remembered that Stephanie was here at the Vandoms' apartment now. He hung his head at his own mental _faux pas._ But the feel of Sue shaking under his protective arm made him afraid for her all over again. He opened her door for her, noting she'd only done up one lock of the two. Now he knew just how much of a hurry Yan Lin had been to get Susan over to the Hales'.

He found himself glad they were both looking down as they crossed the threshold; there was a painting similar to the one Elyon had given to Taranee lying on the floor just past the doorway. With a cry, Susan fell to her knees, taking the foot-long oval up and holding it to her chest and sobbing openly. Dean shut the door behind them, just remembering to relock it, and knelt down next to her, waiting. He was pretty sure her waterworks would be shortlived this time, with all the crying she'd done at the Hales' and during the search.

He was partly right, but the dry, wracking sobs she devolved to when her tears ran out were somehow worse. Lifting her up into his arms, Dean carefully shuffled her to her room and carefully lay her on her bed. That's when he got his first look at the painting's flipside. Elyon had given Sue a perfect studio portrait of Will, from her always-shy smile to her lively mocha eyes. Her exotic blend of Susan's Mediterranean skin-tone and that amazing shock of Scottish red hair were presented to perfection, and Dean couldn't help grinning back at the picture.

Susan shuddered again with a soft cry, and he stood back up. He was turning towards the door when she reached out blindly to catch his arm.

"_Don't leave me,"_ she uttered hoarsely. He cringed before turning around.

"_I'm not,"_ he whispered contritely, even though he had been debating on doing just that a second ago. _"I was just going to get you some water, Sue."_ She blinked at him, her eyes red with her shed tears, nodded and let go.

Dean cursed and kicked himself mentally all the way back to the kitchenette, wondering how he could have forgotten his year of psych classes so easy. He used it all the time with the students of Sheffield, playing counselor to the ones who were having minor problems not worth seeing their resident student advisor, Kimberly Johnson. Filling the first decent-sized tumbler he spotted, he headed back to Sue, only to be brought up short by a sleep-disheveled blonde girl in a Powerpuff Girls pajama set wielding a Louisville Slugger.

"WHO THE FRAK ARE YOU!" the rumpled waif yelled, holding the bat before her like a lightsaber. Dean nearly dropped the full cup in terror at her volume alone.

Wrapping his other hand around the tumbler, he stepped back once, only to have her match him, so the bat was still mere centimeters from his nose. _'Oh, God,'_ he thought. _'This must be …'_ "Stephanie? Hi, we haven't been formally introduced yet. I'm Dean …" His voice failed him as she pulled the bat back, preparing for a swing just as he got his name out.

Stephanie deflated, all the bravado flowing to her sarcastic tongue as she bit out, "You're Dean? Well, you're late. Dinner was twelve _hours ago, TEACH!"_ She flung herself back onto the couch she'd fallen asleep waiting for Susan on, and propped the bat back against the armrest. "D'jou lock the door?" she asked accusingly, grabbing up the remote and turning the television back on.

"Yeah," he gulped, remembering that she was freshly traumatized, herself. It explained the paranoia, and the overzealous protective – and sarcastic – streaks. He could recognize a coping mechanism when one threatened him with a baseball bat.

"Good." He was almost out of the room and back to Sue with her water when she continued. "Hey, was that weird story about the cartoon billboard real? Is that what happened to Will and the others last night?" This time he _did_ drop the tumbler, but fortunately, he was next to the bathroom door, and the full 24-ouncer splashed its contents safely over tile instead of the imitation Berber carpet of the rest of the apartment. Cursing silently again, he started throwing towels from the nearby linen closet over the puddle. Leaving them there to soak it up for a second, he whirled back to get Sue another cupful from the kitchen only to find Stephanie in front of him again.

"It's true?" she gasped, seeing the haunted look in his eyes now that she wasn't threatening him with bodily harm. Dean nodded glumly, then handed her the tumbler.

"Could you get Susan some water, Stephanie? She's dehydrated from crying. Please?" He waited for her to nod back, then busied himself with mopping up the first cupful while she stumbled back to the kitchen for another. She returned as he was dropping the second sodden towel into the tub to dry, and the pair slowly went back to Susan's room together.

Sue was sitting up in the center of her bed, legs crossed under her, coat still on, with the painting cradled in her lap. She was staring raptly at the single portrait on the backside, and Dean and Stephanie could just make out the group shot of the six girls on the front. It was a painted reproduction of the night Will had met Elyon and the other Guardians, two Halloween's ago. The night _before_ they'd become the Guardians, if Dean remembered Yan and Taranee's story correctly, and the night they'd all become brand-new friends.

"Who's the blonde Pippi Longstocking?" Stephanie asked with a nervous titter. If it had a hysterical edge to it, Dean was the last person who'd call her on it.

"Elyon Brown, Queen of … of …" Sue looked up at Dean helplessly, stumped.

"Meridian," he supplied, eyes brimming with his own tears again at the scratchy sound of her voice. He passed the tumbler from Stephanie to Susan, and sank to sit on the side of the bed next to her while she drank. At first she gulped greedily, her parched throat aching for the cool liquid as it flowed past. After a few swallows, she got control of herself, not wanting to get herself sick, though she did finish off the almost full 24-ouncer, and held it out mutely for more. Stephanie, bless the girl's heart, read the silent request and disappeared with the cup, reentering with it full once again a moment later.

Handing Aunt Susan back the cup, Stephanie looked expectantly at Dean. "The Queen of Meridian? The girls go to school with royalty?" She paused, her brow wrinkled in confusion. "Where's Meridian? Sounds like Latin America. And where was this Elyon girl yesterday? I met all the other … witches …" Her eyes flew up to the painting Sue was still holding, and she reached out and tilted it in her Aunt's hand so she could get a better look at the girls standing all around her best friend, her newly-adopted (and now _missing_) sister. Muttering names under her breath as she'd been presented to them last night, she let out a crow of hilarity.

"WITCH!" she cried, tapping the painting accusingly. Dean stood to look at the painting better himself, even as Susan cradled it defensively against her chest again.

"What? They're all dressed as witches, so which one are you talking about?" he asked, confused.

"Not witch. W. I. T. C. H!" She tapped the individual girls in the picture as she said each letter, identifying them by their initials. "And I bet with Elyon joined in, they added her E on the end so it looked all 'Olde English'-y," Steph said with a grin at them both.

"God, I heard them say it all the time, and it never clicked," Dean admitted, and Susan looked up at him, startled.

"I knew," she said simply, looking back at the group's side of the portraits. "Irma told me last Patty's day that Hay Lin gave them the name about a day after we moved here. I guess it's fitting, now, after all. Before then, I thought they were a Harry Potter fan club, or something." She laughed quietly, remembering the conversation, but before long, she was crying again, and Dean was the only thing holding her upright.

"Give me your coats, Teach, and you can settle her in for a nap," Stephanie said, remembering her first frightful days after the robbery. _"Just help her fall asleep, and then come tell me everything."_ She scurried off with Susan's empty tumbler and refilled it again, setting it on her Aunt's nightstand, then leaned in and made sure Sue's alarm clock was off.

Dean meanwhile had coaxed Susan's coat off, and after shucking his tie and shoving it into his coat pocket, he handed both jackets to Stephanie. He gently pried the painting from Sue's fingers, and propped it against the now-deactivated clock with Will's portrait facing the bed. Pulling Susan close, he slowly laid them back on the bed, and just murmured her name softly while she sobbed. Eventually, she cried herself into an exhausted sleep, and he pulled her blanket up and over her. Settling a pillow next to her to replace his frame, he eased out from her side, and left her dozing with Will's softly-smiling image looking at her.

Checking his watch on his way back up the hall, he cursed again, this time loud enough to warrant a titter from the living room. "Sorry," he muttered, checking his pockets for his cell phone. Then he remembered that it was in the pocket of his blazer. "Hey, where'd you put my coat?" he asked, coming the rest of the way out of the hallway.

"It's by the door. You know, where the coat hooks are?" she teased, looking over the back of the couch at him. "And don't sweat the language, Teach. My dad was way worse. Especially after too many hours in his lab."

"What did he do?" Dean asked gently, crossing over to his coat and digging out his phone. The battery was dead, and he swore again, then looked up guiltily. Stephanie laughed at him, and he couldn't help but grin. "Sorry. Again. It's a common curse of teachers, I'm afraid. Locational Tourette's. The farther we get from a school building, the more we tend to swear."

"My dad was a tech for one of those big private security firms, and brought home all kinds of broken stuff to fix it, and he was always trying to invent stuff of his own, too. That's what did my mom in; he hadn't come up with a field dampener strong enough for the level of voltage he'd built into that taser she used on our mugger. Myocardial infarction by way of electrical overexposure." Stephanie hung her head. After a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence, she asked, "So, what happened to Will and the other girls last night?"

"Let me call in to work, first, and I'll have all day to tell you." He looked around the living room, then the dining room, finally spotting the one house phone on its wall hook. Walking over and picking it up, he stared at the dial blankly for a few seconds, then down at his dead cell, and cursed all over again.

"Now what's wrong?" Stephanie asked, giggling at his inventive swearing. At least his swearing was more interesting to listen to than her father's. Marks for a higher education, in her book.

"The number for the school office, which I can't remember, is in my dead phone's memory." He glared at her as she started laughing harder. "If you've got a solution, you can help any time now." He would be the first to admit that his nerves were long ago fried by the events of the evening, (and morning!) and he wanted nothing more than to go back down the hallway and collapse next to his equally exhausted girlfriend, but to do that, he had to call in and have someone cover his classes. Which meant getting the number, which meant … he drew a blank, and realized if he didn't _call_ in, he would have to _go_ in, and fall asleep on his desk. It was an unappealing thought, to say the least.

Looking around forlornly in confusion, he jumped when a giant yellow book thumped onto the dining table next to him. Stephanie looked at him with a sad expression, said "Knock yourself out," and went back to the couch, where she had the news muted so the close-captioning was running across the bottom. Pulling the phone book towards him, he silently looked up Sheffield Institute and dialed the number.

"Hello, Nora? It's Dean Collins. Yeah, the history teacher. Listen, I'm calling in for the day. I know, it's short notice, but the A P could cover for me today, for all it'll take. I've got each class doing unit reviews, with a test on Friday before break. Just tell him that, and I'm sure he'll jump at the chance to sit in a quiet classroom for six hours." He sighed, and got to the really uncomfortable part of the conversation. "Nora, I'm going to give you a list of absences. All of these kids are out sick until further notice, so just write 'em down, and alert the teachers quietly. Yes, it's part of why I'm staying home today. No, it's not contagious. Look, did you see or listen to the news this morning? The collapsed building? Yeah, that one. Just … here: Taranee Cook, Cornelia Hale, Irma Lair, Hay Lin, and Will Vandom. What? Yeah, heh, the fearless five. I've got to remember to pass that one along. Thanks, Nora. Bye."

Stephanie gave him a once-over when he collapsed on the other end of the couch. "I _hope_ it's not contagious. I guess I should just be glad I finished the school year out in Fadden Hills last week, and don't have to worry about signing up for Sheffield till next year." She sighed loudly in the quiet living room, and switched the TV off. "What's going on with my sister and her friends, Mister Collins?"

"You saw the news footage of that cartoon broadcast, the one that ended when the building it was on fell? The battle was real, that was the girls, and the snake-guy was named Cedric. He was from Meridian too, like Elyon. It's not in Latin America, it's an alternate dimension. And Elyon just won back her throne from her power-hungry brother Phobos, who died … in that building. Well, under it, anyway. With Cedric … and … most of the girls. They saved Elyon, and Taranee made it out … but the others …" He stopped before he broke down for good, and looked up at her forlornly. She gave him a sad nod, accepting the need to wait she could read in his expression. It wasn't too long ago she was giving other people that same hollow-eyed, sallow-faced look.

They looked away from each other, and Dean slowly stood up to go lay down next to Sue, and hopefully forget this disaster for a little while. He was one step shy of the far end of the couch, headed back into the hallway, when she cleared her throat, and held out the baseball bat to him handle first. He looked at her warily for a second, unsure of her intentions. "Something to lean on ... till you get there?" she offered, and he couldn't hold back the tears.

Here was a girl, just as surrounded by loss as his Susan, offering a last piece of her own security to help someone else. He knew why she'd been friends with Will in that instant, and why Will had turned out to be the hero she'd become. He only hoped he could help Susan get back from the edge of her own precipice as well as Stephanie was helping him.

Dean took the bat from her gently, and leaned on it for a minute, just trying to regain the strength to finish the walk down the hallway. With a sigh, he propped the ash Slugger back against the couch where it had been. "Thanks, Steph. I think I'll make it now." And he did.

The last thing he was aware of, after he stretched out next to Susan carefully, was that Stephanie was standing quietly in the doorway looking at them. Her brow was furrowed in worry, and her hands were cradling a vaguely, _annoyingly_ familiar pink and pewter necklace.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 12_

"So what were you thanking Alchemy for?" Dean asked as they headed back through downtown Heatherfield from Shell Cove to the Brown residence.

"Huh? Oh!" Taranee looked over at Alchemy for a second, who nodded. It still seemed weird to be confiding in their history teacher, but he'd already proven himself a reliable – and loyal – ally. "The Water Guardian's extra ability's a minor form of mind control, so naturally they're more resistant to it themselves. Whatever keeps attacking us tried to climb into our heads just now, either to make us come to it, or to keep us from getting away. A J basically put a mental brick wall in front of our new enemy."

"_Please _don't call me that …" Alchemy was addressing Taranee, but was alternately glaring at Nigel and the still-unconscious Elyon, her usual tormentors.

"You sound like Corny, only politer," the Fire Guardian returned, grinning.

"_Don't call me Corny!"_ Nigel deadpanned, in such an eerie duplicate of the lost Earth Guardian's voice that Alchemy, Dean and Taranee all jumped, looking around in fear, expecting to see the blonde girl's ghost. Even Elyon stirred fitfully in her sleep at the sound of her missing friend.

"Jeez, that was creepy, Nige," Alchemy whimpered, giving him a death-glare.

"Don't do that to me while I'm driving!" Dean swore, narrowly avoiding the car on their left, who honked irritably.

"Hear, hear!" the female Guardians all chorused, irate.

"I do not understand this argument," Gen started. "Why do you not like the affectionate use of your initials, Alchemy Jones? I thought it was common for Americans to call their friends by endearments."

Alchemy gave him a black look for a second, then just sighed. "Elly's about the only one who really knows this besides Cornelia and the Grumper sisters, so I guess I might as well explain it for you guys now. I can't stand that nickname because it's my _Mom's_. We have the same initials … because we have the same name."

"You're a … Junior?" Nigel practically choked, and Taranee gave him an elbow-shot when she could see he was fighting not to laugh.

"_YES_," Alchemy growled, then sighed again. "Mom was a Sixties' baby, literally born to Hippies at a commune. When Gramps and Grandma wised up in the late Seventies, they and everybody else started calling Mom A J. Then, in her drug-induced delivery stupor, Mom though it was a great name to pass on to the next generation. Talk about flashbacks, huh?" she added as an aside to Taranee, who smirked. "But since the new-age craze swept through, and Harry Potter made magic cool again, _I_ prefer _Alchemy_." She beamed around at the rest of them. "'sides, it kinda fits my new job description, don'tcha think?"

"_Hear, hear,"_ Elyon murmured, smiling up at her drowsily. The Guardians all whooped, realizing she was awake.

"Hey, Q E, we're on our way to your house, so you can finish your nap … or not," Nigel said, adjusting his sentence when she wrestled her way upright.

"Sorry, Gen," she uttered after a misplaced kick, and settled herself into the middle of the seat, blushing.

"_Shieshie ni, Ni De Bishia,"_ he groaned, and Stephanie started laughing. Even Dean looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to calm down long enough to translate. It had certainly _sounded_ rude.

Unable to get anything out verbally while she was still gasping for air, Stephanie resorted to their 'switchboard' next to her. _"He said 'Thank you, Your Majesty!"_ she sent, still laughing. Taranee passed it on with a chuckle, and the others, except Gen, all joined in the laughter.

Nigel leaned in Gen and Steph's direction. "You two have _got_ to teach me Chinese," he mock-whispered. The others laughed harder, wondering how long it would be before Uriah was being called _'Ni De Bishia'_ in the halls of Sheffield Institute.

Dean pulled into the Browns' driveway, only to pale when he saw who was waiting for them all. The Hale family was plainly visible in the front window of the screened-in porch, along with Thomas and Eleanor Brown and a guilty-looking Matt Olsen. "This doesn't bode well," he could hear Alchemy saying from the seat behind his.

As the last to see him back at school, Alchemy couldn't help but wonder what had happened after Matt had teletransported away from Sheffield Institute. Apparently, it was nothing good.

"_Don't jump down their throats yet, Al, or Matt's. They're all _scared," Taranee told the new Water Guardian. Gulping, and now even more worried, Alchemy opened her door and led the teens to Elyon's front door. She noticed that despite bundling up with Nigel in a blanket, in a really warm car for a loooong drive, Taranee was still shivering. It almost looked like the Fire Guardian was _cold_, but that couldn't be …

Coming up the steps, two more bodies became visible to the teens. Napoleon was draped protectively around Lillian's shoulders, and as the group came in the door to the porch, Will's dormouse Mr. Huggles jumped into Elyon's arms, chittering a mile a minute.

"What's wrong, little guy?" she asked the agitated rodent.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Elizabeth interrupted, and the dormouse took a squirming dive into Elyon's shirtcollar.

"We didn't want you to overreact, worrying about protecting Lillian," Taranee preempted the conversation. Pointing at Huggles, Matt and Napoleon she said "That's _their_ job. We helped her instate her Regents so she wouldn't have the continual problem of random enemies targeting her, like we did. _They_ were to take the brunt of any trouble that came looking for the Heart of Earth."

"Wait … the Heart? _Lillian?_ My little Lillian … is _the Heart? Of Earth?"_ Elizabeth paled, and sank onto one of the wicker chairs Eleanor kept on their porch. Harold whirled, glowering at Matt, Eleanor and Thomas, then turned on Taranee.

"We thought that … that _whatever_ it was … in our living room just attacked because of some magic left behind by Cornelia and you other girls. You mean to tell me these _things_ are after Lillian _too?"_

"_Oooops,"_ Taranee said telepathically to the Regents, Guardians, and Elyon, who were all glaring at her as well now. Napoleon cleared his throat, and Lillian hurriedly put him down, fearing a hairball to the temple.

"I think the cat is, how you say, out of the bag, yes?" Gen murmured to Nigel and Stephanie, who both had to choke back their laughter in light of the situation.

"Something attacked you in your living room?" Alchemy and Elyon both asked, worried more about the Hale family than the truth-bomb Taranee had just dropped on them. Safety first, damage control later, as far as they were concerned.

"Yeah," Matt said, hanging his head. "That blast we took in fifth hour was just a softening blow, gang. These things can apparently _smell_ magic. I teleed over to the Hales' and there was this ugly octopod floating outside Cornelia's window, working the latch telekinetically. As soon as it sensed me though, it forgot about the window and flew right at me." He shucked his coat and held up his arm, and the other teens gasped.

His left sleeve was hanging in long tatters, and there was a band of sucker-rings winding from his wrist to his shoulder. "I'm just lucky I was already transformed. I blasted it before it could do more than grab hold. It knocked a second one out of the air by the window, and I was just turning to deal with that one when Harold almost blew me out of the sky. I didn't know you _had_ a shotgun, Mister Hale."

"Glad to say I'm still a lousy shot, Olsen. That bird-shot does a real number on wings, from what I hear," Harold returned, clapping a hand on the guitar-player's shoulder. "But why didn't you tell us you were still keeping an eye on us, or warning us what you looked like ahead of time? It would have saved us a lot of trouble today."

"Like she said," Matt said, thumb aimed at Taranee. "It's our job to protect Lillian. And it's easier to keep her out of danger if nobody knows about her, or us."

"But you said the living room …" Alchemy interrupted. "What happened in the living room?"

"Well, after nearly getting shot, I swooped in Cornelia's window myself, and showed Harold it was me, just before the octopus twins came back. Harold and Napoleon took care of one, while I finished off the other. Literally finished off, too. It was the same one I'd blasted originally, and apparently that had marked me as its chosen prey. I'm just lucky Caleb taught me all that staff-fighting last year. Which reminds me, sorry about the lamp, Mister Hale, Missus Hale."

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt, Matt," Elizabeth said, standing up and giving the dark-haired Regent an unexpected hug. He blushed furiously, and Elyon and Alchemy giggled. Elizabeth was notorious for her affectionate displays to her daughters and their friends. She transferred her embrace to her husband next, giving him a heated kiss as well. "And you were magnificent, dear. Pity the TV took a bit of the buckshot as well, though. Who knew that stuff would just kind of go _through_ the octopus?"

"You mean you killed your TV to save your daughter? That beautiful TV?" Nigel shook his head in 50" plasma bereavement. "Now _that's_ parental devotion," he said, grinning at the other teens, and everybody laughed.

"Now what?" Stephanie wondered, still new to the 'magical cleanup' part of their job. Elyon was kneeling in front of Lillian, who was petting Mr. Huggles while Napoleon was preening on the wicker table nearby.

"Now," the cat began in his Bronx accent, well and truly blowing his cover once and for all. "We ditch the calamari somewhere it won't attract more attention, and see if we can track down where they came from." The three Hales all looked at their cat in wonder, while Elyon dug Huggles the rest of the way out of her shirt, taking advantage of the others' diverted attention.

"Back to Shell Cave?" Alchemy asked. "I mean with the octopods. No one'll blink twice finding a couple more dead sea-critters by the ocean, while they'll definitely get attention in you living room." Harold nodded, and Matt sighed.

"Come on, Nigel, time I taught you some flight techniques, anyway." He nodded expectantly at Stephanie, who transformed the bass player, and Matt teletransported the two of them back to the Hale apartment to deal with creature cleanup.

"What about the rest of us?" Stephanie wondered. Elyon stood back up, one arm hugging Lillian protectively to her side, and the other holding Mr. Huggles.

"I guess we start giving our Heart here magic lessons," the Queen of Meridian said, smiling down at her best friend's sister.

"I thought you guys had all her power," Taranee questioned Napoleon, who stopped cleaning his paw to look at the Fire Guardian and the expectant parents ranged next to her.

"No Heart can be completely separated from her magic. It's tied to their life-force. That's why what your brother woulda done to you was a death sentence, Your Highness. He intended to absorb all your power into himself. You'd have died. So while we have the majority of her power split between the three of us, Lillian still has about as much as you five had individually before you used the Heart of Candracar the first time."

"What does that mean?" Harold asked, wondering if he should increase the renter's insurance on their apartment.

"Well, before Yan gave us the Heart of Candracar, I could light a candle, and redirected a firework at the Halloween party before it hit Will. Cornelia doubled the size of her bean plant for that science project the next day, and Hay could blow up balloons in seconds. Irma could make shapes out of water, and changed the color of her dress for Halloween." She looked from the wary Harold to the rapt Elizabeth, and finally down to the skeptical Lillian.

"You guys are gonna teach me to do magic? _Real magic?"_ the flaxen-haired six-year-old asked dubiously. "None of that 'floating actresses' and 'disappearing elephants' junk, but honest to God _real_ magic, like Harry Potter?" She looked excitedly at her mother all of a sudden, her eyes lighting up. "Ooooh! When do I get a wand and an owl?"

Napoleon facepawed, and everybody else laughed, while Harold just pinched the bridge of his nose. "Heaven help us, she's more like her sister than I thought," he uttered, and the others laughed harder.

"What would you need with an owl, when you've got me?" her familiar grumbled, batting her arm from his perch on the table. "I'd think a talking cat would trump a screeching mite-colony any day."

"Yeah, but you can't fly," Elyon teased.

"Who says?" the black cat retorted, glamouring up a pair of giant butterfly wings, and levitating himself a foot into the air. He hovered for a couple seconds, before his mistress scooped him out of midair with a hyper giggle that would have made Hay Lin proud. He sighed, and let the wings disappear.

"Well, now I know you can work magic, mister, you're litter box is your own responsibility," Elizabeth noted smugly.

"When's the last time I used it?" Napoleon countered. "Ya think it's just Cornelia that's kept your patio plants green and growing in the middle of winter?" Elizabeth Hale flushed, and all the others laughed again, Harold noticeably louder than the rest. He and Napoleon caught each other's eye, and with a simple nod, the two Hale males made a silent deal to stick together.

Dean settled next to Eleanor and Thomas Brown. "No disparagement to W.i.t.c.h., but I think the new Guardians are going to be up to the task."

Eleanor nodded, smiling happily at her adopted daughter as Elyon and the other three girls were all shouting encouragement to Lillian, who was trying to float a big citronella candle off the table. It weighed about one pound, and after a few seconds of concentration, it slowly hovered up about three inches.

Lillian cheered, elated that she'd managed the task, and her upsurge of emotion translated into a power-boost to the candle, which soared straight up to splat into the ceiling of the covered porch. Everyone ducked flying chunks of orange wax, crying and cheering at the same time at her accomplishment.

"Good thing she didn't try teaching her to light it first," Thomas Brown muttered to Dean, who laughed.

Dean's phone rang then, and he pulled it up to check the caller I.D., wincing when he saw Susan's number. He answered, expecting the worst, but thankefully, she just asked where he was. "I'm over at the Browns' with the kids, Sue. Did you want to talk to Stephanie?" he asked, waving to get the teens' attention. It was unnecessary; the porch wasn't that big, and they had paused in their next magic lesson with Lillian to all pay heed to his phone conversation.

"_No, just tell her to turn her phone back on. I know she keeps it off in school, unlike Will. And tell her dinner's in an hour. Spaghetti and meatballs."_ There was just enough of a pause before she continued that he noticed. _"You're invited, too, and … Matt, if he's there."_

Dean took a second to let that last bit process, then cleared his throat. "Thanks, Susan … I'll let him know. He and Nigel are out … taking care of the trash." He rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache coming on. Double lives were so overrated. "See you soon, Susan. I … love you," he tried to tell her, but she hung up before he could finish the sentence. "Damn," Dean muttered, and Stephanie giggled from across the porch.

"So, is that more of that 'Locational Tourette's', Teach?" she teased, reminding Dean again of how they had first met.

"Ha. Ha. Spaghetti for dinner in an hour, Steph. And either something's very wrong, or miraculously right. She invited Matt and me tonight. Any ideas?" The young girl just shook her dark blonde hair, and went back to teaching Lillian telekinetic control.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 13_

Elyon stepped onto the balcony outside her personal suite. All was well in Meridian this morning, now that she'd worked her miraculous healing of Vathek and Frost. The two giant blue men had nearly gutted each other, and she shuddered again at the memory of the raw look of their organs, blood-slick and throbbing visibly in both their wounds. She'd also managed as well with several others whom the healers had feared unsavable.

Captain Miriadel of the Unified Meridian Army, known on Earth as Eleanor Brown, approached her adopted daughter. "Did it work, Your Majesty?" she asked, grinning. "Will Frost abandon his futile support of your foes and swear fealty to the Light of Meridian?"

"Mommmm …"

Eleanor grinned. "What use is it to be the mother of a living goddess, if you can't tease her once in a while?"

"Too right, honey," a male voice said from the far doorway of the Queen's suite. "After all, somebody's got to keep her humble." Thomas Brown, also known as Alborn, former Commander of the Royal Guard, (and recently reinstated to the same position,) strode forward to stand beside his Earth wife of twelve years.

"Aaaarrgghh!" Elyon screamed, throwing her hands in the air in resignation. Sometimes, parents lived just to embarrass their children, even if it was in private.

"Save some of that energy, Highness. The morning may have been long, but the rest of the day will be even longer." Thomas walked over and put a gentle hand on the young Queen's shoulder, steering her back inside and toward her bed.

"How so, Dad?"

"The day will be spent healing, repairing or rebuilding, and burying the dead … Oh, don't worry!" he hastily added at Elyon's horrified expression. "None of your rebel friends were seriously hurt. Well, besides Vathek, I mean. Mostly regular soldiers from both sides; Lurdens were born for combat." She actually looked worse at that, and Eleanor stepped forward as well, dropping down in front of her wonderful, sensitive daughter.

"It's okay, honey," she said, pulling Elyon into a comforting hug. "They think death in the name of their lord – or lady, in this case – is the only fitting way to go. They're kind of like Klingons, when you think about it."

Elyon gave a great snort of surprise, but still started shaking in grief for her departed subjects. Her side or Phobos', she didn't think it was right that any of them should have had to die in this stupid family squabble. "It's over now, Mom. For good. Frost and Tracker neutralized, Gargoyle tired of the fighting, Cedric and Phobos d-dead … and most of the Guardians, too. Well, M.I.A. at least. Which reminds me," she said shakily. She took off the diadem she'd worn since early that morning, certain she'd reabsorbed – and reused! - all of her power from it in the course of her healing work down in the hospital square in town.

"Have this sealed up in the palace vault. Wards, alarms, everything our most trusted casters can work around it. I'd send it on to Candracar, but this is our burden, for now. When the Council has settled the question of their Guardians, _then_ we'll present them with Nerissa."

Eleanor took the proffered jewel. "This … is Nerissa?"

"She's imprisoned inside, like I was, but in essence … yes." Elyon watched in growing alarm as a dark scowl overtook her adopted mother's features. "Mom?"

"This is … _Nerissa_. This is the woman who almost killed you _twice_ … and has for all intents and purposes _destroyed_ the Guardians," she hoarsed, furious. Gentle Eleanor from Heatherfield, who'd raised the beautiful, compassionate girl before her to lead with her heart and always do good, disappeared in a wash of pure hatred that brought to the fore all the militaristic instincts Miriadel of Metamoor had buried for over a decade. She raised her arm, preparing to dash the fragile headpeace across the stone balcony.

"_NO!"_ Elyon screamed, leaping and snatching the diadem back from her mother, who started shaking at the panic in her daughter's voice. The young Queen looked fearfully at her father, and he cleared his throat.

"You should put that somewhere only you can get to, Your Highness. Nobody else could ever be objective around it." Elyon was taken aback as much by his stiff formality, as she was by his equally-slim self control over the naked hatred in his eyes as they regarded the headpiece. With a stiff nod, she stepped away from them both.

"Understood, Comman … Dad." She just couldn't bring herself to be that formal with them. "I'll take it somewhere right away." Her shoulders drooped, and her eyes started to water at this new rift with them, just when she'd thought they could go back to Earth and just be 'the Browns' again. Thomas placed an arm around Eleanor, and gave a motion half wave, half salute in Elyon's direction, then steered the pair of them out of the Queen's suite.

Elyon held her breath until after she'd heard the door shut behind them, then opened a fold to hide the diadem in the last place anyone would ever think to look for it. Her unwanted chore finished, she was back in her rooms and asleep on her bed moments later, but it still wasn't a short enough time to prevent the tears from falling …

_angst_

Cassidy sat up from her 'bed' in Halinor's personal quarters. Candracar's level of furniture evolution had apparently arrested at the Greco-Roman era. She'd dozed off on a divan, a very uncomfortable one-armed love-seat without a back. Stretching, she looked over at the real bed of the room. Kadma snored on obliviously in the center of the round, king-sized floating mattress. The one upside of having direct access to recent (for her) memories from her own days as a Guardian: she remembered all too well how much Kadma kicked and rolled in her sleep. Apparently, Halli had forgotten in the intervening three decades. She was sitting on a chair across the room, nursing a bruise on her ribs and glaring at Kadma as well.

Grinning wickedly, Cassidy pushed her way to her feet and walked right next to the bed where Kadma's braid overhung from her last sleepy flip. Quietly clearing her throat, Cass leaned over (careful to stay out of range of the nearest limbs) and yelled "GOOD MORNING, HALLI!"

Kadma sat bolt upright with a scream, and Cassidy and Halinor both broke out in helpless laughter.

"Good to see you haven't been changed by death any, Cass," Halinor chuckled.

"Oh, God, and I was having the most glorious dream that the last few weeks were a nightmare." Kadma glared at her resurrected teammate. "You really _are_ back," she sighed. "Heaven help us."

"Awwww, one would almost think you didn't miss me, Kadma," Cassidy teased.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, MacLean, you were missed. I've just gotten awfully fond of waking up over the years _without_ you as my personal alarm clock."

Halinor's laughter finally subsided, and she stood up. "Time to face the music, ladies. Let's go see what the Congregation has to say about our last hoorah."

Cassidy held the Staff of Zamballa out for Kadma, who used it to climb to her feet. Then the three women straightened their robes, squared their shoulders, and marched out to meet with the Oracle and the Council of Candracar.

_angst_

Nigel walked through his early classes on autopilot, his brain too busy trying to process what he'd learned from Matt and Peter the night before. He'd gotten to school after getting only an hour's sleep, and from the glimpse of Matt in the hallway between first and second period, it was an hour more than the lead singer had gotten that morning. He knew Taranee wouldn't be in; Dean Collins had said he'd clear that with the office when he called in himself. It was a good thing they only had three more days of school before Christmas break, Nigel thought as he trudged into lunch.

Catching sight of Peter with Matt and the rest of Wreck 55, Nigel waved wearily. Once in line, he meandered past all the available entrees without really looking, and came out the other side with only a green tea, a matching banana, and a stale slice of cheese pizza the kid in front of him had abandoned at the register 'cause he'd run out of change. Sitting down with his meager fare at the table with the rest of the band, he mumbled a hollow hello. He was just opening his tea when Eric and Martin came from their own tables of friends to sit with them. Trading a glance of shared mortification with Matt, who still looked no better from this morning, Nigel summoned up a fake grin of welcome and turned to face the other two boyfriends (or whatever Martin qualified as in regards to Irma Lair) of W.i.t.c.h.

"So … how're things in the world of the audio/visual club, Martin?" Peter asked as an icebreaker.

"Perfectly kay-oh, Retep," the bespectacled teen responded. Dom laughed, and the rest of the bandmembers groaned. Somebody in computer class had brought in a disk full of soundbytes from 'Short Circuit' and its sequel on Monday, and people had been quoting Johnny Five and friends in the halls and classrooms ever since.

Not being part of the tech-class crowd, this was the first time Peter had encountered the phenomenon, and his only response was a confused "Huh?" Eric just stuck his face in his hands to muffle his scream, having run into the school's newest fad all too often already.

Alchemy Jones looked up from her latest notebook decoration, a doodled Ankh, at the weird sound across the cafeteria. A longtime friend of Cornelia and Elyon, she had slowly turned Goth, then Emo in her loneliness during the past strange year that had turned the three formerly close girls into virtual strangers. She'd noticed more than most how Elyon's disappearance had torn at Cornelia, especially once she had started hanging out with the two new girls and Irma the class clown. Irma and Elyon had been friends by association for years through Hay Lin, as had Hay and Cornelia and Alchemy herself, (though she noted with a laugh that there were _very_ few people that the Chinese girl wasn't friends with!) but Cornelia and Irma … to say they had never seen eye-to-eye would have been the understatement of the last two millennium. (Alchemy had also laughed the first time she had heard the girls' nickname for their group; witches they so obviously _weren't!)_ She had also born witness to the relationships that had budded between the new quintet of friends and the boys now at the table with Eric.

Yup, they were all there, she nodded. Matt and Nigel, the rock star wannabes who'd wrecked (she winced at her own inadvertent pun) her musical debut at the 'Battle of the Bands' with the other two hunks next to them, Joel and Dom; Eric, the cooler-than-cool saxophone player from Texas whom spacey Hay-hay had fallen head-over-heels for; even Martin Tubbs, Irma Lair's personal stalker since sometime in grade-school; and the up-and-coming freshman basketball star, Peter Cook.

Alchemy smiled, remembering the instant crushes she and Cornelia had both suffered when the Cooks had moved to Heatherfield from Sesamo. Granted, Cornelia's hadn't lasted long once she'd met that strange boy Caleb, who'd worked at the Lin's restaurant last winter. But seeing Peter fresh from the gym showers just now, Alchemy found hers was dying a _very_ slow death indeed, and was probably what had worsened her Emo period so badly.

Now she watched the boys at Wreck 55's table surreptitiously, and laughed as Joel the drummer told Martin "Ew-scray ou-yay, ozo-bay."

"What's so funny, Jones?" Courtney Grumper asked, as she and her sister went past on their way to the KSHP radio booth for their lunchtime gossip show.

"Just listening to the band-boys over there. And wondering where Corny and the other girls have taken off to; I haven't seen them all day, come to think of it." Alchemy was alarmed at the look the Grumper sisters exchanged.

"You mean you haven't heard?" Bess asked, her eyes wide. "Wow. Okay, um we were gonna put it in the show anyway, but we'll tell you ahead of time since you're our friend, and theirs."

Courtney took over. "You heard about that building that fell down, 'bout halfway between here and the Silver Dragon last night?" She waited for Alchemy to nod, then her sister continued.

"Word with the staff is that the Fearless Five, Irma and the others, were trapped in it when it fell, and Mister Collins was one of the people who was up all night trying to dig them out," Bess said. "It's why he isn't in either; he was there all night helping the search parties, but he didn't say whether they found any of the girls." She looked up just then, and cursed more fluently than Alchemy had heard in even the worst of the action movies her father was fond of. "Here comes Uriah. Look, we're giving the bare bones you just heard to the G.S.P., but we'll be back to tell you the other stuff we heard afterwards, okay?"

Alchemy could only nod numbly as the two school gossip queens disappeared with Uriah Dunn to do the lunchtime music and gossip show that Irma had made so popular. She wondered who would be Dee-jaying today if Irma was out, and found her question answered when Uriah's voice warbled over the sound-system into the lunchroom.

"Good afternoon, ladies and germs. Our usual K-ship lunchtime show is gonna be a little shaken up today, since our Dee-jay is out for the foreseeable future. For details, we'll have our Gossip-girls on in just a few minutes. But first …" BTO's "Takin' Care of Business" started blaring out of the speakers, and the kids who knew the words all started singing along, a fad Irma herself had encouraged, playing as many oldies as she did the new songs all the kids listened to now.

Then Alchemy noticed that not _all_ the kids who knew the tune had joined in. Peter, Matt, and Nigel (who Alchemy _knew_ knew the song,) were huddled close together in a furious whispered debate. They only broke apart when they noticed Eric sidling closer, trying to listen in. Peter said "Well?" Nigel and Matt both sighed and dropped their heads, and Nigel clambered to his feet just as the song was ending. He ran out the same door Uriah and the Grumpers had, and the other two boys exchanged a pained look.

Courtney came over the P.A. "This change of programming was brought to you today by unfortunate circumstances. As everyone knows who pays attention to the news in the mornings, or listens to those who do, the Galemore Building downtown collapsed last night. Our illustrious master Dee-jay, Irma Lair, and her friends the Fearless Five, were on the scene, and from all available accounts, helped evacuate the late-night cleaning crew, but were unfortunately still inside themselves."

Bess continued while her sister caught her breath. "Rescue teams led by none other than our own history teacher Mister Dean Collins and Irma's father Officer Lair of the Heatherfield Police Department searched all night for signs of our fellow students, but at this point, they have not been …" Her sister cut her off.

"This just in, from one of the other searchers who helped out at the scene last night." Courtney's voice shook. "Taranee Cook is not, I am happy to repeat _not,_ among the missing. She was found at the outskirts of the wreckage by our favorite guest lunchlady Yan Lin, who along with many other family members of the Fearless Five, worked late into the night trying to locate her missing friends." Many of the students, who'd started to stand in blank shock, brightened back up at this hopeful news. A few even cheered, among them several of the students who would've been failing, but whom Taranee had tutored whenever her Guardian duties allowed.

"She is recovering safely at home," Bess added, "with only minor injuries. She doesn't know the current fate of her friends, so any inquiries are to be directed to the HPD."

"And on that note," Uriah interrupted the newsfeed of the Grumpers. "We cue the music." Brian Setzer's version of "I Fought the Law and the Law Won" rang out, and Nigel, who was just walking back in, facepalmed.

"I knew he'd find a way to play that tune for an audience someday," he moaned, walking back to the other guys waiting at their table.

"Is that true?" Eric asked, standing shakily to grab hold of Nigel. "Hay Lin? And the others?" he amended with a glance in Martin's direction.

"Yeah, pretty much," Peter and Matt both said at the same time, their expressions stony. Both boys were holding themselves rigidly, and Nigel couldn't blame them; several students were coming forward, questioning looks obvious. Dom and Joel both stood up, placing themselves at either end of the table with expressions that clearly said, 'Ask again later.'

Matt looked up at Joel in silent thanks, then he motioned Eric and Nigel to sit down again. "Alright, Eric; Martin. We three were all at the Galemore with the search parties last night. What you heard just now is the short version. Long version is that the building fell just before ten, after that weird cartoon broadcast, because of a fire. The girls were out at the site because, well, if you saw that show, it was obvious there was more than a passing likeness between the characters and our girlfriends. I'm guessing it was promotional, and someone had approached W.i.t.c.h. about character likeness, which is why they were there instead of safely back at the Silver Dragon. But I suppose you could say, for the dozen people they rescued at least, it was a good thing. But when the fire started, our girls lived up to their _other_ nickname, and charged right in without a second thought." He paused for a shaky breath, and Martin took advantage of the break.

"Did you just call Irma and the girls witches? That's not very nice." Nigel looked up again, aggrieved, then saw the strange look Martin had on his face. It was a combination of shock, indignation, and something the bass player couldn't quite name. Then Eric laughed, only to smother it himself when all the others glared at him.

"Sorry, it's just … sorry, Martin, Matt. Hay told me that one weeks ago. It's not witch, as a word, Martin. It's … look." Eric pulled a sheet of paper out of the back of his notebook, and wrote the five girls names down in order, then underlined the first initial of each name. "See, Martin? W. I. T. C. H. Hay-hay thought it up the day after they all met last Halloween, and started hanging around together. She thought it was just too cool that their names made a word, the other girls went along with it, and the rest is history."

Matt had to fight down an inappropriate chuckle of his own as Martin brightened considerably, staring at the piece of paper. Then all of them let their hearts open in front of the other guys briefly, sharing amusing anecdotes about Hay Lin and Irma, memorable moments with Taranee and Will, and the inevitable times Cornelia cut loose on somebody with her viper's tongue.

The seven boys whiled away the rest of lunch hour that way. When the bell rang, none of them noticed that they'd had an audience of one. The short-haired brunette Goth had moved surreptitiously closer a table at a time until she could hear every word they were saying, and reliving several moments they talked about, since she'd been present for many of them.

The band and their friends walked on to their afternoon classes, and Alchemy slowly went her own way. When they were on their way out the doors later after school had let out for the day, she surprised each of the boyfriends, bandmates and brothers with a silent, sympathetic hug. The only one she spoke to was Peter, and she left him for last, saying shyly (and with much blushing!) to give Taranee her love.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 14_

Taranee fought down another shiver, and grabbed hold of the table in the center of the porch. Covered or not, it wasn't warm enough out here. "Missus Brown, I gotta use the facilities," she said, standing slowly from where they were all kneeling around Lillian as she practiced her newly-revealed telekinesis.

"Of course, dear. Second door on the left." Eleanor held the door open for her, then followed her inside. "If Susan's getting dinner ready, I probably should, too. Do you want to stay, Taranee?"

The two women's eyes met, and the Fire Guardian smiled, remembering how much the W.i.t.c.h. girls had had to insist the Browns call them by name after the Guardians had saved Elyon, and Meridian, the _first_ time. Even Cornelia, who they'd known for years, had found their sudden formality hard to accept. It had taken three solid days of Irma constantly addressing them as 'Captain Miriadel' and 'Commander Alborn', and nothing else, before they'd acquiesced, laughing. All it had taken was one quiet _'Please?'_ from Taranee after the death of Cedric and Phobos – and the other Guardians – to keep them from falling into the practice the second time around.

"I'll let you know in a minute, Missus Brown." Ducking into the bathroom, Taranee put all the lids down on the commode, sat on the toilet, and pulled her legs up under her coat. She put her head down against her knees, and concentrated on her inner magic, trying with all her might to flag the dying ember she could feel inside her back to life. That second attack on the beach had done something bad to her, she could tell. She only hoped that she had born the brunt of the attack, and the others would be okay. _'Especially Nigel,'_ she thought, remembering that he'd been next to her …and Elyon!

The same attack that had somehow sapped her of her mystical Fire had also knocked Elly out, she remembered, standing hurriedly. Pulling her cell phone out, a late Christmas gift from her parents, Taranee dialed Nigel's cell number, while she pushed her way out to the porch again. "Hey, Elly …" Taranee faltered, not seeing the young Queen out on her porch. Indeed, the only ones left were the Hales and Alchemy.

Nigel answered before she could ask where the Heart of Meridian had disappeared to._ "What is it, Beauty?"_

"Hey, Beast, do you feel any difference in your powers now from earlier in the cave?" she asked, voice low.

"_I was a little dizzy right after we woke back up after the attack, but I feel okay now. Why?"_

"Just feeling a little tired, Nigel. And cold, which is weird. I can't even remember the last time I felt cold."

Silence was his initial answer to her, then: _"You might want Stephanie to transform you once, Beauty. If it helped me …"_ He left the sentence unfinished, and Taranee could hear Matt in the background, as well as the pound of surf on shore.

"You guys are already at the Cove?" she asked, with a glance at the Hales. Elizabeth raised a brow in silent question, and Taranee held up a finger so she could ask the boys. "Is the mess cleared up at Cornelia's?"

Hearing Matt laugh in the background told her Nigel had her on speaker, and she grinned her way through another shiver. Waiting for the boys' answer, she looked back at Elizabeth, and mouthed _'Where's Elyon?'_

Elizabeth said "Took Gen home," and Taranee nodded. It wouldn't be a long wait; the Lins were unwelcoming at best right now to the girl their daughter had died saving.

"_The creature part of the mess is taken care of, but Harold gets to pick up the rest,"_ Matt said, while Nigel chuckled. _"I took care of the lamp, too. It was covered in octopus slime_." Nigel laughed harder, and after relaying the message, Taranee joined the two boys' mirth. She was just hanging up when Elyon reappeared.

"Thank God. Elly, how do you feel?" the Fire Guardian asked. Blinking a couple times while she thought it out, Elyon's brow dropped.

"Now that you mention it, I'm tired, and more than our practice should have done to me. I feel about like I did right after that first half of the fight with Phobos last year. When he sucked part of my power away. It felt the same way after Trill … after Nerissa stole magic from me, too." She pursed her lips. "This isn't surprising you, T. Why?"

"Ever since that attack on the beach, I've been cold. Like something's sucked all the Fire out of me, Elly. Let's go up to your room for a minute, okay?" Elyon nodded, and the two girls went inside.

Alchemy looked up briefly from where she was trying to teach Lillian how to make a floating globe of water out of a bowl Eleanor Brown had supplied them with. Elizabeth and Harold Hale were watching raptly as their youngest daughter tried repeatedly to duplicate Alchemy's example, which the Water Guardian had set floating about six inches away.

The pair of girls entered Elyon's room, and Taranee sat down in the chair in front of Elyon's vanity. Seeing her own hollow-eyed reflection in the mirror, the braided Fire Guardian turned to face the blonde Queen. "When do we propose trying an Astral Drop, T?" Elyon asked, misreading the sigh Taranee had given at the sight of their own faces staring back at them.

"Huh? Um, Halinor promised Candracar would tell us when we should attempt any 'Drops, Elyon. I get the feeling there's something they're waiting for." Taranee shook her head. "That's not what I asked you up here for. I've noticed that whenever you've felt drained, all you've had to do is go back to Meridian and sleep. I was gonna suggest it, but I don't know if it's safe to leave the Hales alone right now with Heart-hunters after us all. Do you think you could convince Harold to take his family with you to Metamoor?"

"Why don't _you_ try?" Elyon countered, worried.

"You've known them longer, frankly, and … I don't think Mister Hale will ever fully trust me, El. As is, I won't be able to go with you; I've got to get to Stephanie and have her transform me once. Nigel told me he felt drained back at the beach too, but as soon as he Guardianed up …" She had to pause as both of them giggled involuntarily at the corny phrase Irma had coined one afternoon's practice during the summer. _'Ahem!'_ "As soon as she changed him, he was reenergized, elementally speaking," Taranee continued. "And I don't think I can hold it off much longer, either. I'm feeling colder as we sit here."

"What? Why didn't you say something sooner, silly?" Elyon popped to her feet and pulled Taranee up as well. "One express ticket to revitalization, coming up!" the Meridianite said as she opened a fold in the middle of her room. She pulled Taranee through before the Af. Am. girl could protest.

_angst_

Stephanie was just opening the rear passenger door to climb out of Dean's PT Cruiser when Matt and Nigel appeared behind her with a '_pop'_. "AAAAHH!!" she screamed, falling out the open door.

"What?!" Dean cried, stumbling around his car to her side to find out. Seeing a confused pair of boys sitting in the third seat, he almost tripped over the blonde girl. Catching himself barely in time, he sank to his knees, shaking with adrenaline overload. "What the #&][ are you two doing back there?" he swore, glaring at the two.

"A little warning next time, guys; I'm too young to develop a heart condition," Stephanie bit out acidly, clambering to her feet and brushing the snow back off her jacket.

"Sorry," Nigel began. "We finished at the beach, and we figured this was the safest place to teletransport back to."

"Yeah, we thought everybody would still be back at Elyon's," Matt added.

"Aunt Susan called to tell us dinner was in an hour while you guys were gone. Which reminds me," Steph leaned back into the car so she was mere inches from Matt's face. "You're invited. Hope you like spaghetti." She hopped back out and spun around to help Dean back to his feet. Matt looked over at Nigel.

"Should I worry?" he asked, wondering what his missing girlfriend's mother might have in store for him.

"I don't … Oh, no. What're they doing _here_ ..?" Nigel's answer got interrupted as he saw Elyon and Taranee stepping out of the narrow alley between the apartment building the Vandom-Paytons' lived in and the corner pharmacy.

"Who ..? Ah, crap. We gotta deal quick, man," Matt said, clambering over the middle seat and out the door behind Stephanie. Nigel followed as fast as he could. Susan's intolerance of all things magical was touchy at the best of times, but if confronted with too much directly … The teens didn't _want_ to know how she'd react, so most of them just kept their distance, for the time being.

The four by the car (Dean had been alerted by the boy's sudden _additional_ tension to something behind him, and he knew even better than the others, besides Steph, just how touchy Susan was at the moment.) noticed that, once they'd made themselves visible to them, the other two girls stayed put, and motioned the quartet to come to the alleyway mouth. Nigel, still in Guardian form, tapped Stephanie's shoulder and cleared his throat. With an embarrassed grimace, she changed him back so he could stand up from the Cruiser's back seat without showing his magical self off to all and sundry.

Walking over to the waiting girls, Dean and the other teens noticed that Elyon was holding Taranee up, and the Fire Guardian was huddled into herself, shivering. At the sight of her first full-body shake, Stephanie and Nigel broke into a hard run to her side.

Taking Taranee from the shorter Elyon's grasp, Nigel wrapped his girlfriend up tight in his own coat, and told Stephanie, "Transform her, _quick_!"

Concentrating on the fast-fading Fire Guardian before her, Steph yanked the Heart of Candracar out of her shirtcollar, and yelled "Guardian, UNITE!"

In a flash of red-orange light, Taranee Cook disappeared. In her place, the Elemental Zenith of Fire floated slowly up off the ground to hover a foot taller than Dean Collins, who stepped back with a gasp of astonishment. If this was what the final Guardian form looked like, he'd have to tell Elyon to redo the painting she'd given to Taranee. Those flat stills hardly did the magnificent being before him justice.

The apartment building door burst open behind them, and Susan came out, her winter coat only half on. "What are you _doing_ down here?! _Anybody_ could have heard that!!" She stopped dead at the sight of Zenith Taranee, though, and just gaped. "Is … is that … Taranee?" Dean could only nod, numb with shock. _"WHY?"_ Susan hissed.

"Emergency cure, Aunt Susan," Stephanie answered. She was still trying to figure out why Taranee had gone all the way to Zenith, when the Fire Guardian answered them all.

"_My apologies for startling you all so,"_ the formerly-fading girl before them said to the others telepathically. Even the mental voice had in it the sound of a crackling blaze, like an extra-staticky, old-time radio broadcast. _"It was necessary for me to amplify the transformation of your Guardian to ensure her survival. She would not have withstood the normal shift in forms."_

"_WHAT?!"_ the six of them managed to blurt out in shock.

Elyon was the first to recover. "You're … you're not Taranee, _are_ you?"

"_No."_ After several seconds' agonizing pause, the entity continued. _"I am part of the Auramere of Fire, a projection of the power available to the Guardian chosen by me. Your friend is in Candracar, rejuvenating in her Elemental Chamber. Her connection to us was nearly severed by a recent magical attack, which was thwarted by the presence of two Hearts. These attacks will continue, unless confronted at their source. It is recommended that this be undertaken now."_ The Zenith projection flickered quietly in place, waiting.

Susan looked around at all the others. "Did that thing just say you were attacked?" She grabbed hold of Stephanie. _"When?"_

"Sue, calm down …" Dean tried to say.

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! I'VE ALREADY LOST WILL, AND I WON'T … I _CAN'T LOSE YOU, TOO!"_ she cried, shaking her newly adopted daughter. Susan fell to her knees in the alleyway, sobbing, and Stephanie threw her arms around her.

"You won't lose me, Aunt Sue. I promise. But this isn't just about me, anymore. Just like it wasn't just about Willie." Susan gave a snort of surprise.

Stephanie was the only one who had ever called her daughter that, and Will had hated it, until she had been betrayed by her Fadden Hills swim team coach at a intramural meet, and that particular nickname had been the one thing to break through her madness long enough for Stephanie and her other teammates to keep her from ruining any future she had in the sport, let alone anywhere else. That awful day had been one of the things that had prompted Susan to move herself and her daughter to Heatherfield.

Now the distraught mother clung to Stephanie, her daughter in all but blood, and steeled herself to do the last thing any parent wanted to do: let her child go willingly into harm's way without being able to join her, or even help. But worse, so much worse, at least to Susan, there was no way she _could_ help. She shook her head, trying not to wail openly at the universal unfairness of it all. Small sounds of her despair escaped nonetheless, and Dean was beside her in a heartbeat, holding her as she held Stephanie.

Matt, Elyon, Nigel and the silent Auramere watched and waited. Then the Fire projection spoke to Elyon. _"The Oracle has said that it is time. Utilize the spell to make this being into an image of your friend, that you might take your forces to the source of the attack without raising undo alarm."_ Nigel looked at the entity blankly, but Matt and Elyon paled.

They'd dreaded this moment for so long, knowing that the parents, once they knew about the Astral Drop ability, would try to make the Guardians bring back their missing daughters. That the world at large thought the other four girls were dead, thanks to the discovery of the bodies Taranee, Elyon, and Matt had created at the Galemore collapse, just added complications to the complications. Elyon could only think of one stop-gap for the fount of trouble brewing in front of them.

"Matt, let's go collect the other two first. Might as well have all our peas in one pod, right?" The young Queen turned from Nigel's increasingly confused expression, her heart falling. First she had to go and get Gen from the Lins'. She _so _wasn't looking forward to a return visit so soon; Joan and Chen had been coldly formal, and had not welcomed her at all. She'd fled as fast as politely possible, determined to hide any tears. It was only Taranee's distraction due to her loss of power that had kept Elyon from dwelling on the problem. Now that she had to go back …

"Hey, Queen-E," Matt said soothingly, catching a glimpse of her warring emotions on her face. "Go home and get Alchemy. _I'll_ get Gen." He let the green flash in his eyes for a second, letting her know he felt just as many ways about the problem, then teletransported to the back alleyway of the Silver Dragon without another word.

Elyon gave one last nervous glance back at the huddled trio and the lost boy standing next to the fiery humanoid figure. With a sigh, she told Nigel "B R B," and folded home to conscript Alchemy into their preemptive invasion.

Nigel slapped his hand to his forehead, dug his phone out, and called Matt. "Dude, if this is our chance for a win, you should rendezvous with Elyon at her place, and collect your two partners, as well. Something tells me we're gonna need all the help we can get." He waited out Matt's agreement, said "See you then," and hung up.

"_Astute thinking, Air Guardian,"_ the Fire Auramere said emotionlessly. "_Three Hearts would be better than two, in this endeavor."_

"I guess we oughtta just be thankful that we've got three Hearts to call on, at the moment," he replied, and was rewarded with a hearty backslap from Stephanie.

"Now that's using your noodle, Nigel. I knew Taranee couldn't be the only one with brains in this outfit." Stephanie turned back to her adopted mother, who'd released her after seeing Matt and Elyon both disappear to collect the other two Guardians. "See? With backup like this, I'll be fine, Aunt Sue. And besides, we've got another couple aces up our sleeves. One, we already know what these things look like, as well as how to fight them, and apparently, our first mission is gonna be right here on Earth. So if we _really_ need help, we can always give someone a phonecall for backup." She waved her blue Razr with a reassuring smile, but Susan wasn't buying it.

"When was someone going to tell me that Matthew Olsen was one of you as well, and not just 'one of those who know'?" She sounded furious as only Dean had witnessed before. It was the same anger she'd directed at Yan Lin after finding out initially. Dean had hoped to spark some of that fire back into her, if only to get her out of the insurmountable depression the whole Holiday Season without Will had plunged her into. But this could be exactly the wrong thing to focus her anger on.

"_Your anger serves a purpose, Mother of Quintessence,"_ the Auramere being sent to her. _"Do not let it rule you, however. Use it to do what must be done, to serve the greater good for all involved."_

"Mother of Quin … What was that word?" Susan asked in irritation. She was wondering if she was being insulted. Of course, her chances of doing anything to the being of living Fire before her if that was the case were slim, but still …

"Quintessence," Nigel supplied. "It's the fifth element, controlled by the wielder of the Heart of Candracar. Lightning, electro-magnetism, life-force, universal energy, stuff like that."

"Is that what it's called?" Stephanie asked, and held out her hand. There was a spark of pink electricity across her palm, and a loose scrap of metal several feet away glided over to her. "And here I thought I was going nuts, talking to the appliances."

Susan, recalling several incidents with Will, started to cackle hysterically. She muffled it herself, which was a good sign, as far as the others could guess. The unmistakable mirth in her eyes refused to be dispelled, though, and soon enough, she said, "I always thought it was one of Will's defense mechanism's, since it started almost as soon as we moved here. She was always yelling at the TV, the refrigerator, and her alarm clock by name."

"OMG, Billy, James, and … and … I've never heard Will's alarm clock, but … am I right?" Steph blurted.

"Right about what?" they all heard Matt ask as he reappeared in a green flash along with Elyon, Alchemy, Gen, Napoleon, and Mr. Huggles. The grey-furred Regent jumped excitedly out of Elyon's arms and wriggled his way around Susan's ankles like an affectionate ferret.

"Where has _he_ been?" Susan asked, eyeing the dormouse suspiciously. She stooped down and scooped him up, scratching behind his ears. Mr. Huggles let out a series of satisfied squeaks.

"He's been at my place, Missus Vandom," Matt admitted, looking down. "Will left him with me before they went out that night, and I … well …" His list of reasons died out as she suddenly started glaring at him, remembering her anger with him for the additional deception.

"Matthew, when were you going to tell me?" she asked venomously.

He looked at her guiltily, but since he wasn't sure just what she was mad about, he still had to ask. "About what?"

"_About the fact that you've been running around with powers as well?"_ she hissed, accidentally squeezing the poor dormouse. He jumped back out of her arms with a squeal, and started chittering back at her angrily from the safety of Alchemy's feet.

"Uh, Sue?" Dean started. She almost decked him turning around.

"_You wait your turn!"_ she yelled, _way_ past indignant.

"_Mother of Quintessence, the Guardians are needed. Save your wrath for the enemies of you and yours. The time grows short,"_ the Fire Altermere interrupted. It turned to face Stephanie. _"Now, Guardian of the Heart, use the spell, and let us be gone to our task."_

"What spell? I don't know any spells! I just know how to change us into Guardians and back, and how to fry an egg in three seconds!"

"We know the spell, Auramere. Candracar wished it safeguarded until now." Elyon stepped forward next to Stephanie. "Aim the Heart at her, think of Taranee, and say _'Pord Lartsa'_."

Stephanie looked askance at the young Meridianite. Elyon just nodded. "Okay … Pord Lartsa!" she called, and with another flash of pink-tinged orange light, the Altermere turned into Taranee.

All the new Guardians said "Whoa …" and Dean and Susan both stepped back.

"Now is the time. Transform us, please," the newly-born Astral Drop said to Stephanie, who reluctantly complied. Susan started wondering how often the girls had done just that in this very alleyway without anybody noticing, as they apparently weren't right then. "Regents, if you please?" it said next to Matt and Napoleon … she thought. Then the band-member, the cat, _and her daughter's dormouse all transformed into giants!_

Susan fell down, pale and shaking from the fresh shock, and Dean knelt beside her, just as awed. He'd seen Shagon before, in his capacity as Earth's Regent, as well as much earlier, in a far different capacity. But this was Susan's first view of Matt's alter-ego, and it was the first time either of them had seen Napoleon or Mr. Huggles in their hulking battle forms. Kor the former dormouse knelt in front of his human keeper's mother, and bowed low from his waist, showing fealty where he knew he should in reassurance.

"We must go here," the Taranee-mere said, and with a wave of its hand made a ring of fire in the air before them. Inside the ring, a vision emerged, of a snow-swept landscape near the sea. "Are we prepared?" it asked.

"Just a second," Stephanie said, and stooped to pick her phone back up. She waggled it so Susan would look her way from the distracting image of her daughter's dormouse, the barbarian warrior. "See? Just like I promised. Don't worry, we'll be right back." With that, she and all the other teen superheroes turned back to get one more look at the dreary picture of their destination. As they all looked a single octopus floated past, two of its tentacles holding what looked like an old weathervane from somebody's barn.

"That's our cue, boys and girls," Napoleon said, his Bronx accent sounding even stranger coming out of the giant cat-warrior body he now possessed. With that, the seven teens and two animals folded away to deal with this latest threat to the magic of Earth.

_**Author's Note:**_ Hey, readers. I need some help to finish the scene in Candracar. Can anybody tell me the _NAME_ of Blunk's Mama? If so, please leave it in a review, or try and brave our new Message system. Either way, thanks for reading, and many more thanks to those of you reviewing. Catch ya on the flipside, A J.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 15_

"Think they're mad?" Halinor whispered.

"The ones that aren't crying as bad as us? Yeah, I'd say so," Cassidy responded between fresh sobs. Kadma stood nearby, silent in her grief, watching the Oracle and his chief advisor. Even obstinate old Tibor looked shaken by their news.

The three women had just finished telling the Congregation of Candracar about the last battle of W.i.t.c.h. and the following search for survivors and the Heart. Those Councilmembers not overwhelmed by the loss of their heroic Guardians were equally disappointed and incensed over the mystery of the missing Heart of Candracar.

The Basiliadian Catwoman Luba was the first to speak afterwards. "You see, Himerish? I told you they were too young, too reckless to face the chaos Nerissa would unleash on the infinite dimensions …"

"Those girls did more to protect us all than any of you thought they could!" Halinor shouted. She got right in Luba's face, furious. The Congregation could squabble all they want about the girl's chosen tactics, but the former Fire Guardian would be _damned_ if she'd just stand by and let her team's valiant successors be slandered out of hand.

"If you don't step away, you shall need Guardians of your own …" Luba hissed.

"She has them." Cassidy got next to the two glaring females. "Now cool it, Purina-breath, before I give you the bath you've been asking for since I was alive last."

"Ladies …" Althor the dwarf began.

"You think thirty years is enough of a rest to have our rematch, Water-whelp? I await you …"

"Cassidy, not now," Kadma cajoled, as tired as one could get at her age and still remain standing. Even with the assistance of the magical Staff of Zamballa, she was near to collapse again.

"Why not now? She's askin' for it," the red-haired girl bridled.

"Ladies ..?" Althor tried again. He and Tibor had both stepped down from the Council tiers to bring the meeting back to order, and realized they'd better start with the women in front.

"Just like the children who followed you," Luba spat at Cassidy. "Rash and untempered, judgemental and quick to jump into a fight they couldn't comprehend, let alone win …" She was just warming to her topic, (and enjoying the burn spreading across Cassidy's face as a bonus,) when …

'_**CRACK**__!'_

The sound of Halinor smacking Luba resounded throughout the chamber.

"_Ladies, that is ENOUGH!"_ the Oracle bellowed telepathically, stunning them all before Luba could do more than look back at the former Fire Guardian in blank shock. She wasn't alone.

In the history of Candracar, one could count on the four-fingered hand of an Abodean Elf (with digits left over!) how often someone had managed to surprise Luba in any way. Now the Congregation watched breathlessly in anticipation, as Himerish advanced on the too-still trio at the center of the room.

"Wow, Halli, I never knew you had it in … you …" Cassidy began to blurt, halting as she turned to face her old friend. She was rendered as speechless – and still – as Luba by the sheer agony in Halinor's eyes. _'My god, she looks like Susan Vandom did last night,'_ Cass couldn't help but think.

"_My apologies, Keeper; Oracle,"_ Halinor sent, her shoulders starting to shake. She didn't trust her voice anymore. _"Oracle, what … what do we do now? About … well, all of it?"_

"Members of Candracar, know that the Heart of Candracar is in safe hands, which will make themselves known in time. Our last Guardian, brightest girl of her age, will find her friends with the help of the newest Guardians, who assemble even now, awaiting the Heart's light. Until then, we are at an impass. We are bound to render aid in the meantime to those who have sacrificed so much for the safety of the Infinite Dimensions."

Himerish turned once again to face the four women at the center of the room. "Halinor, what of the parents? Yes, you were right to tell them all that you did," he added with one of his serene smiles. "Yan Lin surmised correctly that four disappearances would be that much harder to explain away than dear Cassidy's 'skiing accident' so many years ago."

The red-haired Water Guardian, so recently returned to her life - and her powers - again, cleared her throat to get the Oracle's attention. "The other's may be beyond this, but should I go back to Heatherfield to help Taranee? I'm the only Water …"

"No. I'm sorry," the Oracle replied, making all near him pay closer attention. "Taranee will have others to aid her in her search for her friends, and substitute Guardians have already been foreseen. Your time as a needed Guardian is done, Miss MacLean. Again," he added with a wry smile she couldn't help but return. "You have before you the unbelievable chance to start your life over where you left off. You need only contact those who can help you best. I believe you know of whom I speak."

"Dean," Cassidy murmured to herself, and the Oracle smiled wider, nodding. She would be fine, after a while. Himerish turned to face Kadma.

"You are awaited in Zamballa, my dear. With or without your guidance, their Heart belongs at home. Do you need accompaniment?" Before she could think too hard on the subject, Kadma shook her head, opened a fold, and disappeared into it. The tear between dimensions sealed with a puff of the scent of Juniper flowers.

"Oracle, how much of this have you known was coming?" Cassidy dared to ask.

"Insolent whelp!" Luba exploded. Himerish stalled her with an upheld hand.

"Luba, please return to your post with the Aurameres. I need you to tell us if the last act of the Guardians has seriously affected them." He looked to Tibor next. "Gather your staff, my friend. We need to know what the consequences of Elemental Zenith will be on our champions once they surface. And Luba?" he added to the departing grumbling Catwoman. "Have Caleb return to the Congregation from his guardpost. I think your capable claws shall be enough for the safety of the Aurameres, now that Miranda has fled."

The Keeper from Basiliade disappeared, and while Tibor was still rounding up his Historian staff from throughout the Congregation Chamber to head for the Temple's library, Caleb came careening in at a dead run, followed closely by Blunk and his mother. The Oracle meanwhile was answering Cassidy's question after all.

"Dearest Cassidy, the ever-changing tapestry of the future is mine to peek at, I will freely admit, but even I don't see all of any given eventuality. I did see the possibility of new Guardians stepping forth after this fight, but dearly hoped it simply would have been because Guardian Vandom and her friends wished to step down. That they would succeed regardless against Nerissa and Phobos's machinations, I did know, thankfully. Unfortunately, even I was not aware of the tactics, or the cost, they would have to endure." He turned then to address their new arrivals.

"Ah, Mother Black, I haven't had the chance to thank you for your help yet …" he started to say. Then Caleb grabbed Himerish by his ornate sash.

"Is it true? Cornelia? Hay and the others?" he cried, his eyes wild.

"Caleb, I …" Himerish faltered, unable to even meet his young accoster's haunted gaze. Here was one who'd lost more than all of them, save Yan Lin or Taranee.

As if the thought had sparked her response, Halinor said "Taranee survived, Caleb," hollowly. What should have been a hopeful message in a soothing voice came out broken by her tears.

"They did more than that. The Guardians stopped Cedric, saved Elyon and us from Nerissa, and Hay rescued a dozen people from a fire before the end." Cassidy sounded defiant as she gave him the condensed version of the night's events. Halinor guessed the former Water Guardian was still trying to vindicate the lost girls in their absence. The young red-haired woman continued for Caleb's benefit.

"We were able, thanks to Taranee and Halli, to follow the majority of the fight, Caleb. The Guardians – _your_ Guardians – were magnificent. Even after Cedric mastered his own Elemental attacks, and was winning, the girls refused to give up. When Rissi suggested the Zenith idea, it was just in time …"

"Wait, what? My … Nerissa gave the Guardians an idea to beat Cedric, and they _went with it?"_ Caleb looked at the two remaining former Guardians and the Oracle in disbelief. "After everything she's done, they took her advice and used … what did you call it, uh ..?" He stalled out, at a loss as to her name as well as the topic.

"Caleb, this is Cassidy MacLean, who was the Water Guardian alongside Yan Lin, Halinor Johannsen, Kadma Bashir, and your mother, Nerissa," the Oracle supplied graciously. Caleb bowed low to her as well as Halinor, before turning back to Himerish.

"So what did my _mother_ do to the Guardians?" Caleb demanded.

"Sadly, she didn't have anything to do with how things ended, Caleb. It was all a tragic accident," Halinor interjected, eyes downcast. She had managed to overcome _some_ of the grief that had made her lash out at Luba earlier, but by no means all; _that_ would be a long time coming. "It is a technique called Zenith, meaning 'at its highest' in an old Earth language. The girls _became_ their Elements: Electricity, Water, Fire, Earth and Air. They were on the verge of winning, but then the building they were all fighting next to collapsed on them all, Cedric included." She cleared her throat. "He and Phobos are dead as well."

Caleb sat down hard in shock, his sword clanging from his slack grip to the stone floor of the Chamber of the Congregation. "How ..?" He struggled with himself for a moment, not even noticing when Blunk crept up next to him in his own terrified sympathy. Finally, Caleb managed to get the right question out. "How did you all survive, Guardian Cassidy? Guardian Halinor?" He looked at them both helplessly. Cassidy knelt before him.

"We were all trapped inside Elyon's diadem during the fight here in Candracar by Phobos, who was then devoured by Cedric, remember? Well as soon as we sensed the fighting stop, Kadma, Yanni, and … Nerissa conferred, and figured out how to get us safely back out to the real world. But … but once we got out …" Words failed Cassidy, and Caleb hung his head.

"After we were out of the Queen's jewel, we found Taranee," Halinor told him. "We kept searching all night, with the girls' parents' help, but we didn't find any sign of the others." She rested one hand on Caleb's shoulder, and her other on Cassidy's, which was starting to shake again with the Water-girl's renewed sobs.

"The Guardians are not dead," the Oracle said again. "I still sense them through the Heart of Candracar, which young Guardian Vandom has left with someone she trusted." Cassidy and Halinor exchanged a startled glance, while Caleb stood back up. "She and a group of substitute Guardians will have to shoulder the tasks of our missing girls until they are found and restored to themselves, as Taranee had to be."

"If … if you can sense them … can you find them? Oracle?" Caleb began haltingly.

"Possibly, with the Heart … but it would take me as long as it will take our Substitutes, once they are united."

"They aren't all together already?" Halinor asked. She moved to sit on the nearest of the Congregation seats.

"They will find each other through their connections with the Guardians," Himerish answered.

"Do we know _any_ of them?" Caleb asked.

"Having resided in Heatherfield, you may recognize some of them, Caleb. Those we do not know are close to the Guardians in ways we will learn as the time comes." Blunk cleared his throat.

"Girls gone? Blunk can find." The passling stabbed a green thumb stalwartly into his woolen vest. "Just need go where to start," he added. He looked up at the Oracle, then Caleb and Cassidy, who'd stood again to get away from Blunk's odiferous proximity.

"Oracle, if it's possible …" Althor began quietly from behind them.

"Yes … Yes! By all means, good Sir Blunk. Caleb, Cassidy, could you take him back to Heatherfield? You both have your own tasks to accomplish there as well, I'm aware, but if you could get our seeker to the scene of the collapse, we could all get started with our responsibilities." Himerish gave each of them a warm handclasp to the shoulder, even Blunk, then swept off to see how things with the Aurameres were progressing. Cassidy gave Halinor a parting hug before the former Fire Guardian and Althor followed the Oracle.

"Momma want go home now?" Blunk asked.

"Yes. Momma still cooking when we left. Be careful, Blunky-poo," the diminutive passling female said, giving her son a hug. Blunk dug in his many pockets, looking for the Tonga tooth, but soon gave a wild cry.

"Ahhhh! Tooth gone! Blunk stuck!" He began sniffing around in a growing circle, but Caleb pulled him back upright.

"We'll find it later, Blunk. Can you get us to Heatherfield, Guardian Cassidy?" the young rebel asked.

"I should be able to. And please, Caleb … it's just Cassidy." She smiled at him as she successfully created a fold back to Earth. "Whew! Now to see if my aim is as good as it used to be. I was trying for the hallway of the Hales' place, which is where we left from ..."

Blunk tugged on Cassidy's sleeve. "Send Momma home, too?" he asked. Cassidy's cheeks crimsoned to match her hair.

"Oh! Uh, sure … Blunk, right? Now that I know that I can …" She turned to Blunk's mother. "Where do you live, Momma Black?" The elderly passling scratched her head for a minute, then reached down and scratched a crude map in the battle-dust in the Chamber.

"Meridian here, Torus Filney here, Momma lives here," she supplied, making three 'X's in the dust on her outline of Metamoor's central continent. She looked up at Cassidy hopefully.

"Okay … here goes …" Cassidy threw her arm through the air again before her, and a second fold opened next to the first. "No guarantees about the neighborhood, Momma Black, but that should at least put you on the right side of Torus Filney. Good luck with your cooking, and thanks for the help." Blunk's mother scurried through the extra portal, and it sealed behind her.

As they turned to disappear through the other portal, Cassidy grinned at the pair. "Well, once more down the rabbit hole, huh?"


	16. Chapter 16

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 16_

Elyon, the Guardians, and Earth's Regents stepped from the fold into a frigid war zone. As soon as they appeared, they were set upon by wave after wave of levitating octopi infantry. The creatures were armed with old farm implements and ship parts. Alchemy swore to the others later that she was actually attacked by two purple octopods wielding belaying pins, like something from an old, _bad_, pirate movie.

The most experienced of those remaining, Matt and Elyon had a two-second telepathic tactical conference. Both yelled "Teams of three!" The young Queen headed left with Alchemy and Gen, Nigel followed Matt and Kor right, and Stephanie blasted straight forward with Napoleon and the Taranee-mere. None of them knew what they were looking for yet, but they were sure they'd know it when they found it.

Gen and Alchemy found out early on that their individual powers were practically useless against flying octopi. Pelting their rubbery bodies with beach debris and pounding them with waterjets wasn't much of a deterrent. Elyon's hurried command of "Combo!" gave them a new weapon. The newest Guardians' newest enemy, while pretty well immune to their separate Elements, proved to be extremely vulnerable to good old-fashioned mud bombs. Elyon, once she saw how effective the pair suddenly was, changed her own magical blasts to match.

Matt and Nigel took to the air, cruising and swerving a few feet over Kor's head. 'Appropriating' two improvised staves from a couple of determined foes, they swatted any octopod that got too close to them. Kor Huggles proved himself as ferocious against these new creatures as he had ever been against the Guardians. He tore at them with claw and tooth, he splayed them out with summoned blasts of mana, and after he stopped the charge of three octopi with a makeshift lance, he had himself a ranged weapon as well.

Napoleon was having a glorious time. It was literally kitten's play to pounce from one target to the next, rending them from the air with magic-enhanced claws. He disdained the pitiful weapons they attempted to bear against him, using his Mistress Heart's energy to shield his hide. These things were here to harm her, either directly or by hurting her remaining friends and family. He would strew their stinking floppy corpses to the four corners of the cosmos before he'd allow that to happen.

His intensity was only matched by the Fire Altermere. It flew in Taranee's Guardian guise parallel to his path of carnage, dealing out a blistering pulse of fire to each octopus that floated its way. Charred, curling calamari carcasses littered the icy plain as she travelled. Stephanie buzzed warily behind the pair, ensuring any survivor who gave chase was summarily electrocuted. These things had attacked her team and their allies twice already, and she was going to make sure they didn't get a third chance.

There was a sudden shockwave of energy from somewhere to the south, and Stephanie watched in horror as all but Kor and Elyon dropped to the ground. The Guardians and the other two Regents writhed in agony as more energy was siphoned from them. The Altermere stood slowly, eyes blazing, and shifted to Zenith before Steph's slitted eyes.

"_Regents, conserve yourselves. Guardians, protect Meridian's Light,"_ the Fire-being sent to them. There was a pulse of heat from the Altermere, knocking all the nearby cold-dwelling octopi back, and then she streaked off at supersonic speed, straight for the source of the magic-draining effect. Stephanie was standing up against the siphoning when she saw, off in the distance where the Altermere had gone, a small mushroom-cloud, like the one from a nuclear blast.

"_NO!"_ she cried, mentally and physically. Alchemy was still stumbling towards her from where she and Gen had fallen near Elyon, and swiveled to see the explosive wave of blast-driven snow and debris whirling toward them all.

"Kor, Elyon, we need a shield!" the Water Guardian yelled, and detoured from Stephanie to between the two she'd yelled to. With a wave of her hands, Alchemy sent a stream of water in a line around all of the gathered defenders. "Steph, charge it!" she yelled, pointing at her encircling stream.

"What?" Stephanie asked, totally confused.

"Quintessence!" Nigel and Alchemy both yelled back, each helping the nearest Earth Regent back to their feet.

"Okay … Quintessence!" Stephanie commanded, concentrating on the circle of water. Or more accuratey, as she felt her still-recovering energy interact with Alchemy's, _Water._ "Guardians, unite!" she cried, and Nigel and Gen added their Elements to their burgeoning energy shield. Elyon and Kor, the least drained among their allied Hearts, conjured Fire for them in Taranee's absence.

The Shield closed over them just in time, as the permafrost cascade spilled across their position. The Guardians, Regents, and Elyon watched the wash of dirty snow and ice flow up, over and past their bubble of energy. Tense minutes crawled by as they waited for the second shockwave, but it never came. When Napoleon, furthest south of the group, felt the rumbling of the passing snow stop, he gave Matt a nod. The two converged, and supported each other back to the center of the circle, where Stephanie and Nigel were sweating with the exertion of maintaining their shield.

"Just another minute, you two, and we can get out of here," Napoleon said, then he and Matt, the only two not already helping to create the shield, added their energy to the center, shaping it from a dome to a cone, and the others all gasped around them as the covering of rime slid down off the tip to the sides around them. Seeing how high the snow had piled around them, all the teens gathered into the center with the two Regents, careful to keep feeding their Elements to the shield.

"We … we're gonna need … a wall … or somethin … gGAHHHH!" Nigel ground out, falling to his knees. Matt left Napoleon to hold up the cone's apex, and lent some Heart-energy to Nigel.

"C'mon, man, just another few seconds," he murmured, and helped direct Nigel and Alchemy's energies towards the bottom of the cone, to make a wall of ice to hold back the awaiting avalanche.

"Don't forget … the buttresses …" Stephanie said through clenched teeth, seeing their work.

"The what?" Napoleon asked, now lending his help to Matt, Nigel and Alchemy.

"Braces! Thanks, Steph," Alchemy answered for them. She began directing extra bursts of water at the base of the shield, and told Napoleon to help Nigel freeze them into supports.

Gen started calling Earth supports up to help as well, but didn't manage many. "I can not … hold this any more," Gen sighed, his arms falling just before he did. Alchemy, having worked more than all the others at this point, was the next to topple, but the others could see she'd finished her final brace. The Guardians, Kor, and finally Elyon left off their Energy one by one, and the shield fell away. It left the teens and their allies surrounded by a ring of ice just tall enough to hold back the majority of the dirty snow. A pile poured over the side to the south, nearly giving them a ramp up to the top of the flow. Stephanie had to dance back as the slush surged her way.

"That's not gonna hold for long," Nigel said, hearing the ice creak and groan. Kor snuffed his agreement, and the Regents all linked hands briefly, drawing from contact with each other a boost of energy similar to that gained by the Guardians from their bonds of friendship. The three then walked among the new Guardians, applying some of that boost in energy transfusions where needed. Stephanie made them leave her from last, calling out the Heart of Candracar and trying to use it to scry the last location of the Fire Altermere. For a second, she was shown a circular crater similar to the frozen bowl they were standing in, surrounded by an icy wasteland.

Matt grabbed her elbow, and she tore her eyes from the image in the Heart of Candracar. "We have to go," he said. "Help me with Kor?" Steph started to nod, then stood straighter as she felt the surge of renewing energy he gave her.

"Let's fold to Candracar instead," she said. "We can check on Taranee and her Auramere, and then come back. _After_ this has fallen and settled," she added with a wave around her at their straining wall.

"Anything for a chance to warm up," Elyon countered, missing the equatorial climate of Meridian City more than she'd thought possible. The other teens all gave a laugh as they gathered together and folded to the Heart of Infinity.

_Angst_

"O M G, I forgot to call Aunt Sue before we left Earth," Stephanie said, looking at her phone forlornly.

"We'll be back on Terra Firma soon enough," Alchemy countered, watching as Nigel led Matt and Elyon towards the Elemental Recovery Rooms that branched off the Hall of the Aurameres. Taranee had greeted them mentally as soon as she had sensed her teammates in Candracar. While she and Alchemy were on affable terms, with Elyon and Cornelia as both of their friends, they had little in common besides their grade-point-averages … and being fellow Guardians, of course.

Steph and Gen were as new to the Heatherfield crowd as Taranee and Will had been the year before, when they had both moved to town just before Halloween. They had become fast friends themselves with Hay and Will as their relatives and predecessors, missing though they were.

Now the two stood in the Chamber of the Congregation, filling in the Oracle and the Congregation with Alchemy and Napoleon's help. Halinor was conspicuously absent, but Althor had assured the Guardians that she was with Taranee in the Chamber of Fire, seeing to their friend's recovery from her mana-draining. When the teens and the Regent got to the part about the Altermere's apparent self-sacrifice to stop a third siphoning attack against the allied Hearts on Earth, several of the Councilors gasped in shock, and Tibor ran to the Auramere's Hall to check on the Orb of Fire for himself.

He was back a moment later, panting as he came to a halt before the Oracle. "There's only a slight reduction in size, and not more than was missing when the Auramere performed its life-saving transposition of energy with Taranee, Himerish," he reported, and a sigh of relief rang out from the Congregation as a whole.

"Did anyone know they could do that?" one of the Congregation asked in a high, musical voice. She was a tiny woman, even shorter than Althor, and her pale skin and pastel robes were a stark contrast to her raven-black hair. It hung down her back in a single braid as long as Hay Lin's ponytails, and was her most striking feature … except for her ears. She had the gently-curved, pointed ears of most elves, but hers were twice the size someone her height would normally have. Napoleon winced visibly, and she stepped down to the floor of the Chamber, making her lack of stature even more evident next to his hulking form. _"So sorry," _she amended telepathically._ "I forget what my voice does to those with higher-level hearing. Is this better?"_

Napoleon knelt to her eye level. "Leaps and bounds, milady …" he began, obliquely asking for her name.

"Prophetess Bethire comes to us from a far-distant sphere of influence, Regent Napoleon," the Oracle said, by way of introduction. "She has come to bring magical teachings to our Guardians from her people."

"Really?" Stephanie said, excited. "'cause as magic goes, _anything's_ gotta be more useful than this." She held up her useless-in-Candracar cell phone, and it started haranguing her in a tinny, mechanical voice for bringing her all the way to Antarctica and not giving her the job she was there to do.

"We were in _Antarctica?"_ Nigel asked from across the room. The Guardians, Regents, and Council-members all turned, to see the Air Guardian carrying Taranee (still in her normal everyday form) effortlessly in his arms. A spontaneous cheer went up for the Fire Guardian, and she blushed at all the attention.

"You know, you can put me down now that we're here, Beast," she whispered to Nigel.

"I like the feel of you safe in my arms, Beauty," he replied, and leaned in to give her a feather-light kiss before standing her upright in front of him. She blushed again, and he smiled when he could feel it travel down to her shoulders, which he wrapped his arms around protectively. Matt and Elyon both gave him teasing nudges as they slipped past him.

"Thanks for blocking the door," the young Queen said quietly.

"Your welcome, _Ni De Bishia,"_ Nigel retorted, and smiled when Taranee laughed.

"Such a compliment, for such a young lady," Bethire sang out, and Napoleon winced again. Patting his cheek consolingly, she then whisked across the room as if teletransported. "What have you done at your age to earn such exalted a title?" she asked Elyon, and the Meridianite blushed as well.

"I'm … the Queen of Meridian," Elyon said, looking down at the diminutive, delighted woman.

"Surely you've done something to earn the title of 'She-wolf' as well as Queen, else why would your compatriots call you such?"

"Well, I _did_ have to win my throne from my brother," Elyon added, equally bemused and bewildered. _"T, why is she calling me 'she-wolf'?" _she begged her schoolmate mentally, using touch to keep the sending private.

Taranee started snickering, and Nigel's smile threatened to split his face in half. _"I'm only guessing, Elly, but I think in her culture, 8!+©# is a compliment,"_ Taranee finally managed to tell her. _"Just tell her thanks, and let's get back to Earth to finish this job. I've still got a report to finish for tomorrow."_ Elyon did as bidden, and the Guardians reunited in the center of the room before the Oracle.

"Soooo, once more unto the breach?" Stephanie asked, and Alchemy gave her a ribshot.

"_You've spent too long with Mister Collins, trying to get him back together with Will's mom,"_ Taranee sent as well.

"If your Fire Guardian is feeling able," Himerish said. "I think the Auramere has managed to dispose of the worst of the Cephaloids' weapons. Guardian Cook?"

"I … I think so …" she said, and Nigel gave her an extra squeeze.

"Only if you're sure, Beauty," he murmured into her hair, unwilling to see her needlessly risk herself after so recently having saved her again.

Taking a deep breath, Taranee let it out slowly, drawing strength from his concern as much as the nearness of her Auramere, and her friends. She nodded once firmly to Stephanie, and the Energy Guardian drew out the Heart of Candracar.

"Guardian, unite." The Fire Micromere floated out and lit into Taranee, who grew back into her Guardian form in a flash of orange light and a burst of warmth.

"All right, now I'm _definitely _ready. Let's go kick some octopus keister," Taranee said, and her glasses showed amplified images of the Fire in her eyes. The other Guardians gave a rousing cheer, along with Elyon and Matt. Stephanie opened a fold back to their Antarctic arena, and the teens, Napoleon, and Kor stepped through to deal with their alien foes.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 17_

Cassidy led Caleb and Blunk to the Galemore building, grumbling the whole way. Her once-perfect aim with portals had for some reason landed them, not in the hallway at Cornelia's as she intended, but in an alleyway next to a 24-hour pharmacy. Caleb told her they were near Will's place, which only confused the freshly-former Water Guardian more. Alive or dead, she had no recollection of the Vandoms' residence, so she'd had to have Caleb point her towards the Silver Dragon, so she could then lead him from there to the scene of W.i.t.c.h.'s final battle.

Blunk wasted no time once there. He started to follow the intersecting trails of the girls, pausing where they'd stopped to deliver a blast of their Elements, or been knocked down by one of Cedric's. At one point, he kept circling back to the same spot, complaining about "Burnt shoes, smell like everybody."

Cassidy looked at the forlorn passling's location, and sighed. "That's where we found Taranee, Blunk," she said quietly, knowing the green goblin would hear her. With a much-heartened expression, Blunk headed further into the devastation.

Cassidy had been giving Caleb a more thorough retelling of his friends' final fight before that. As much of the battle as she and the other prisoners in young Queen Elyon's necklace had been privy to, thanks to Taranee and Halinor, she now relayed to him.

He took pains to follow both her narrative and Blunk's meandering. He was looking for those points where what she was describing and where the passling was sniffing converged. Finally, Cassidy's story stalled, and Caleb glanced back at her.

"I'm sorry, Caleb. But from here on, all we've got to go on is the cartoon the Regents projected of the rest of the fight. Once the girls went to Zenith, contact between us all was broken until Cedric's defeat cracked the crystal. Then we escaped, trapping Nerissa." Cassidy hung her head. "I truly am sorry for all this. I can't stop wondering just how different all this would have turned out … if I'd just given the Heart to Rissi all those years ago …"

Caleb grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Cass! Don't … just don't. For starters, we probably wouldn't be standing around arguing about it. You'd either be fighting her still, or working with her, or … or dead, anyway." He paled at that, and turned completely ashen as he continued. "And I … I probably wouldn't be around to argue about it with …" He let her go, and ran up the nearby hill of rubble to see where Blunk's latest trail had taken him. Cassidy sobbed, remembering that Caleb had been born to Nerissa and Julian many years after her own untimely demise. Rather than dwell on the depressing thoughts longer, Cass turned to find what else the passling had discovered.

The pesky fellow was muttering about _"Storm stink,"_ to Caleb, and the description had the young rebel convinced Blunk was following Irma's Water, Hay's Wind, or Will's lightning-blast scent. "Show me where, Blunk," he was saying, when a startled _"Eeeep!"_ from Cassidy made them both turn around again.

"You … you're Cassidy, right?" a girl with short brown hair asked. "I remember you. You were hanging out at our school a couple weeks ago, with that stuck-up raven, Stacy."

Cassidy had to search her vague memories of the past few weeks, when she'd been enthralled by Nerissa, to recall the incident. "At lunch … you were the girl in front of me in line, right? Corny's friend!" she exclaimed. Relieved that she could call forth _some_ memory of the recent past after all, she walked forward.

"_Cornelia's_ friend, Alchemy," the other girl introduced herself. She and Cassidy shook hands, and Alchemy flexed hers oddly afterwards. "Huh, you're hand's wet. Lose your gloves in the snow?"

"Yeah," Cass dodged. She looked back over her shoulder, where Caleb was doing his best to block the new brunette's view of Blunk, who was down on all fours, sniffing at a triangle of fallen stone blocks. Each was easily the size of the passling.

"_What is it, Blunk?"_ Caleb whispered.

"_All smells go here,"_ Blunk mumbled back. He peeked between Caleb's knees at Cassidy and Alchemy. _"Get Water-girls' help?" _Caleb shook his head.

"_Let's get the other girl out of here, and see about getting the Regents to help."_ He turned back to Cassidy. "I'll have to come back with some more help, … Miss MacLean. Most of this is too big to move by myself." He walked back towards the two young women.

"That's okay, Caleb. I want to see if there's something more we can do for the families," Cass replied.

"You're Caleb? The same Caleb Cornelia's always gushing about in class?" Alchemy stepped past Cassidy, and Blunk dove for cover. The three humans all jumped at the clatter of rocks the passling's passing dislodged.

"Yeah, that's me," Caleb started. "Look this place isn't the safest. Let's get somewhere stable to talk." He led the way out as he said this, holding up the police tape that ringed the collapsed building for the two girls. He waved Blunk off when the green-skinned goblinoid peeked out from hiding. _"Keep looking. We'll be back later with help,"_ Caleb muttered just loud enough for Blunk to hear him, and turned back to Alchemy and Cass.

"I-if you're going to talk to the families, I'll come too," Alchemy said. "I want to be there for Mister and Missus Hale, at least."

"I … guess it couldn't hurt," Cassidy replied. She motioned for Alchemy to lead the way, and as soon as the brown-haired girl started off, she turned to Caleb with a helpless look. He just sighed, she shrugged, and he nodded. The two followed Alchemy forlornly down the road back to Cornelia's apartment.

_angst_

"_I got it!"_ Lillian Hale cried when the knocking started. She raced to answer the door, positive it would be her sister, or one of her friends coming to tell them she'd been found and was on her way home.

Opening the door, which she was _finally_ tall enough to reach the deadbolt on, she nearly cheered. The red-haired lady from last night was back, along with her sister's country boyfriend, and …

"_Almy_!" the blonde six-year-old squealed. Wow! Cornelia's palest girlfriend hadn't visited in almost a year, ever since her sister had started hanging out with funny Hay Lin and Irma, and the other two girls. Lillian liked them, but she'd always liked Elly and Almy the most of her sister's friends. Elyon told the best stories, even if Hay could draw them better, but Alchemy had always been the nicest to her.

"Heya, squirt," Alchemy laughed, leaning down and pulling the Heart of Earth into a glad hug. There was a brief shimmer of blue light that none of them noticed. The two embracing girls had their eyes shut, and Caleb and Cassidy were still stomping the last of the snow off their shoes.

"Who's here, Lilli … an ..?" Elizabeth began as she came out of the kitchen. "Cassidy! We didn't expect to see you so soon …" _'If ever again.'_ "And Caleb and … Alchemy?! Alchemy, how are you?" Elizabeth fawned. She took both of the brown-haired girl's hands when Alchemy let go of Lillian in surprise. The bereft blonde woman pulled her in for an unexpected hug. "How _have_ you _been?"_ she gushed.

"Uh …" Alchemy managed, while Elizabeth was apparently trying to squeeze the life out of her.

What Alchemy didn't see was that the second she had Al distracted, Elizabeth was furiously mouthing _"Does she know?"_ over the girl's shoulder to the other two.

Caleb, never that good at lip-reading, just looked at her blankly. Cassidy caught on however, and shook her head quickly. For some reason, that only made Elizabeth sadder, though she hid it well when she finally released Alchemy.

"I'm sure you've heard all about the Galemore, so I won't … How are you, Alchemy?"

"You asked me that already, Mizz Hale. I'm … fine. I will be, I mean. First Elly goes missing … now Cornelia's …" Alchemy stopped, and looked down at Lillian. "I just wanted to come by and see if there was anything I could do," she finally managed.

"As did we," Cassidy added.

"But Elyon's _not_ missing!" Lillian said. "You told me last night!" She pointed at Cassidy.

"Elly's back?" Alchemy asked the former Water Guardian.

"I heard she and her parents flew in this morning," Elizabeth interrupted hurriedly. One of them would have to call the Browns to warn of an impending swarm of curious and worried friends at this rate. Then she remembered that Thomas and Eleanor had taken their little girl (or rather, the other way around!) back to that fairy-tale world they were from, through a shimmering doorway in her living room. "We haven't heard from them yet, so they're probably all still jet-lagged from wherever they came back from." She glanced significantly at Cassidy, who nodded.

"Then she hasn't heard …" Alchemy gasped, hands over her mouth. Suddenly there was a loud _'Pang!'_ from the kitchen, and the sound of gushing water. Elizabeth charged back through the door, only to reappear a second later, phone in hand and shirt drenched.

"You'll have to come back later, girls; Caleb. My dishwasher machine just blew a hose." She disappeared into the kitchen, and the kids could hear screaming, cursing, and banging against the background of running water. Lillian giggled at her mother's swearing.

The three young adults were turning reluctantly to leave, when Caleb spotted Napoleon skulking in the hallway. "I'll catch up, girls. I've got to use the necessary, first." He grinned sheepishly, ruffled Lillian's hair, and headed towards the half-bath. _"Meet me and the other Regents at the battle-site,"_ he whispered to Napoleon as he went past. The black cat Familiar _'Meow'_ed and nodded once, then stalked forward to curl himself around each of the girls' ankles in turn.

Cassidy gave the cat an absent-minded pat, then glanced toward the kitchen, where the noises were just getting worse. "I'll uh … see if I can help her out. I know a little bit about plumbing," she murmured to Alchemy and Lillian, and ducked through the door. Almost immediately, the sound of the water quieted, then stopped altogether. A moment later, a thoroughly-soaked Elizabeth Hale came stomping out, yelling into the phone.

"No, Mister Azerius, I am not exaggerating. All the pipes in the kitchen. Yes, we managed to get to the shut-off valve. No, I don't have any … Alright, as soon as you can get here. Thank you. Good-bye, Mister Azerius." She hung up. "Well, the super is sending somebody eventually. Darndest thing, though … every pipe …" She looked back as Cass came out.

Not nearly as soaked as Elizabeth, Cassidy was still spattered. Her carrot-colored hair glittered with droplets on one side, and her arms and sleeves were drenched past the elbows from wrestling with the shut-off. "Sorry about that last blast, Mizz Hale. Silly of me to forget the old saying 'Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey'." Spotting a lone spotted sunflower, she wrung out her sleeves into its soil. "Do you want help mopping that up?"

"No, no. I can manage," Elizabeth said. "It'll give me something to do while I wait for the super. You three go on, I'm sure there're other people you need to see."

"Yes," Caleb said, returning. "Hopefully we'll have better news, next time we come by." He gave his missing girlfriend's mother a sad smile, and gestured for the two girls to precede him out. Alchemy hugged Lillian again, then Elizabeth pulled the brunette girl back in for a hug as well. Then the three teens went out the door. Caleb noticed a dark four-footed form squeezing out behind them as he pulled the apartment door to.

"Where to next?" the rebel asked.

"To see Will's mom." Cassidy straightened her shoulders. She wasn't sure if she hoped that Dean Collins was still there, or not. It would make finding him easier, since she didn't have an address for him. But Cass wasn't sure if she was ready to face him – or her interrupted life – yet.

"I'll pass, you guys. I don't really know the Vandoms," Alchemy said.

"No?" Cassidy asked, then remembered that Alchemy wasn't one of the Guardians' inner circle of support on Earth, or as Peter Cook had dubbed the folks gathered last night, "Those who _know."_ "Well, okay. It was nice to meet another of Corny … lia's friends," she amended herself at Alchemy's arched brow. "My apologies. Irma's influence, as I said. Some things stick despite our best intentions." The three of them grinned uneasily at each other, and then they were back outside.

"We'll see you around, then, Alchemy," Caleb said quietly. He turned himself and Cass back towards Will's only to find that Alchemy was still following behind them.

"I live that way, too," she said. The trio exchanged another uneasy smile, and they set off in silence toward Will and Susan Vandom's downtown apartment.


	18. Chapter 18

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 18_

Coming back to Antarctica at the head of a column of vengeful Elemental warriors, Stephanie paused long enough to flip open her Razr and hit her Speed1. Susan answered after only one ring.

"_Steph, is that you?"_

"Yeah, Aunt Sue, sorry it took so long. We're kinda in between engagements. But I promised I'd call, so hi, we're still alive."

"_Where _are_ you guys?"_ Dean asked, and Steph could picture their history teacher leaning over her adopted mother's shoulder so they could both talk on the phone. _"You came up as 'roaming number',"_

"Heh, not surprising, Teach. We're in Antarctica."

"_Ant … Ant-ARCTIC_**A**?!" Sue gasped, her voice rising to inaudible heights at the end.

"_How bad is it?"_ Dean couldn't help himself. He knew, too, that Sue would want to know, regardless of her current phobic hatred of magic.

"Well … the Altermere blew itself up getting rid of the thing that kept trying to suck off our magic."

"_Alt-altermere?"_ Steph slapped her forehead; nobody had explained the whole alternate forms thing to any of them. She hadn't heard the term herself until they'd been in Candracar just now.

"Yeah, the … the Fire Zenith being that had us make her look like Taranee. It's gone now. But Taranee's better, and she's back with us."

"_Peter will be glad to hear that,"_ Dean told her.

'_Oh, God no, tell me they didn't …'_ "What did you tell him already?"

"_Just that you were all attacked, Taranee got hurt, and you went after the squids responsible,"_ Sue admitted. Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"So he'll want every gory detail as well by the time we get back," she mumbled. "Grreeaat." Elyon called to her. "Gotta go now, Teach, Aunt Sue. Be good while you wait. Love ya, bye," Steph said, and hung up before they could get irate. "What now?" she asked, rejoining the others. She saw that Nigel and Taranee were holding hands, but were all tensed up, and concluded that they must have been listening to every word of her call, and relaying it to the other Guardians and their friends. _'Terrific.' "Invasion of privacy much, T?"_

"_Sorry, we really _were_ minding our own business 'til Nigel heard Peter's name mentioned,"_ Taranee sent back. "So, Peter knows, too?" she continued aloud, for the other's benefit.

"Yeah …" Steph replied. Alchemy giggled, and all the others turned to look at her. "What?"

"Just … trying to picture his face when he found out about all this, still."

"I'll show you the memory someday," Taranee said, with a strangled look. _'If it ever doesn't hurt to think of that night,'_ she added to herself. "All right, let's do this, people. For W.i.t.c.h." She held her hand out.

"For Earth," Matt said, putting his on top of hers.

"For Lillian," Alchemy added, joining in.

"For Meridian," Elyon chimed in.

"For Hearts everywhere," Gen and Steph both said, adding their hands. Nigel, Napoleon and Kor nodded an affirmative, and placed their hands in too.

"Alright, let's show these seafood salad rejects who we are," Napoleon said, and the teens all turned to face the blast-swept plain of snow together.

_angst_

With the Cephaloids' main weapon sidelined, the Regents and Guardians decided to take their return more cautiously. Using the three Hearts' energy together, Elyon Napoleon and Nigel made all nine of them invisible. Splitting back into their three teams, with Taranee helping everyone coordinate and communicate, they spread across the arctic plain looking for their latest enemy.

The octopods seemed to have disappeared. Omnipresent when the kids had arrived originally, they appeared to have taken the same 'hide-and-hunt' attitude as the teens. Even Kor and Napoleon's superior animal senses couldn't find any clues.

"_This is creepy,"_ Stephanie sent, trying to aid their stealth mode with silence.

"_Where'd they all go?"_ Alchemy added. Taranee caught the other thought behind it.

"_You're right, Al. They're _all _gone, even the ones we downed earlier. We … well, okay, you guys anyway, weren't gone long enough for them to manage a mass evacuation, especially considering the number of wounded they had …"_

"_Why'd you say 'we' the first time, Beauty?"_ Nigel asked. The other Guardians all groaned at the flood of warm fuzzy feelings that flowed through their common telepathic link.

"_Because while I was in my Elemental Chamber, tied to the Auramere, I could kinda sense what it experienced."_ She turned to Stephanie, flying next to her over Napoleon. _"It really had you turn it into me to fight?"_

"_Yeah, it said it was to maintain our anonymity, ya know? Only it had us transform and zip here right afterward to fight the squids …"_

"_Octopi,"_ Alchemy corrected automatically. _"Eight legs, not ten."_ Elyon and Nigel laughed mentally.

"_And is Matt being outed to Sue Vandom true, too?"_ Taranee continued, ignoring them.

"Ah … yeah," Matt murmured out loud as well as mentally. Nigel hurriedly shushed him, looking around. No sign of their enemy still, but … better safe than sorry. _Especially_ if they were going to get into a team-distracting conversation.

"_What'd she do?"_ Taranee asked.

"_I thought you already saw this?"_

"_Saw is right; less audio than video, really."_

"_Well, she yelled," _Steph answered_. "A lot."_

"_What'd she _say?"

The Energy and Air Guardians related the whole scene in the alley to her and the others who'd missed it in whole or in part. Afterwards, Taranee whistled softly. _"Wow. 's'strange, though. The Auramere sounds like my mom, when she and my dad argue … all reasonable and polite …"_

"_Well, think about it for a minute, T'ree,"_ their own voice of reason Alchemy sent. _"The biggest most recent influences on the Fire Auramere have been you and Halinor. You're both, Kadma aside, the most level-headed Guardians of the last two teams."_

"_Lately, I'd have said you and Gen more than me,"_ Taranee answered. _"Especially since …"_ She didn't finish the sentence. Among them, she didn't have to. They all knew it was the memory of her friends that kept her going.

"_I believe your folks would call it extenuating circumstances, Beauty,"_ Nigel told her gently. He sent her the psychic equivalent of a warm hug of reassurance. The other teens, caught in the following back-and-forth flow of lovey-dovey feelings between the Air and Fire Guardians, all groaned again.

"_Get a room, already," _Elyon told the pair good-naturedly. When they all saw, through Matt and Stephanie's eyes, the respective profuse blushes that overtook Nigel and Taranee's faces, the others all gasped in eerie concert.

"_Oh … my … God …"_ Alchemy finally managed. Mute, astonished agreement was all any of the others could offer … until Elyon giggled.

"_Okay, _definitely_ not how I think of it … I'm trying _not_ to actually … but in Irma's words, '_Way to go Taranee!'_"_ That got all the others laughing, at least for a moment. Napoleon's sudden sending interrupted the teens delight, and Taranee's impending implosion from embarrassment, to bring them back to their bleak surroundings.

"_Amusing as your love lives are to this poor puddy-tat,"_ the Regent rumbled. _"I've found our missing playmates." _Taranee and Stephanie flipped over in midair to fly back down to where the cat-man waited. Napoleon had been checking out a crevasse while they scouted from above. _"Looks like we get to continue our hunt underground."_

Sending an image of their location to the others, Taranee landed. She gulped when she saw the cave Napoleon had found in the crevasse.

"_They went in there?"_ Stephanie asked, as Elyon and the rest appeared over the trio's heads. _"All of them?"_

"_All the survivors, at least,"_ Napoleon confirmed. He tugged out an octopus carcass that lay just inside. It was partially cooked, and Stephanie recognized electrical burns as the cause. The teens traded some uneasy looks behind him, and the cat chuckled nastily. _""What, you thought this would be another of those bloodless battles where you spank a bunch of lurdens and send 'em to bed without supper? Sorry kiddies, this war's one of survival."_

Elyon's gulp mirrored Taranee's. _"That being the case, should we see about those reinforcements now?"_

"_For tunnel-searching? Yeah, prob'ly a good idea,"_ Nigel answered for the rest, holding Taranee's shaking hand. Her insipient attack of claustrophobia was apparent.

"_Let's block this off, for now," _Matt said, and gave Napoleon's shoulder a tug to get him out of the 'doorway'. The others retreated, and Gen and Alchemy dropped the sides of the crevasse in simultaneous slashes of power.

"Back to Heatherfield?" Steph asked out loud, calling the Heart back out. The others all nodded gladly, and the Heartwielder teletransported them all home.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 19_

Alchemy was with them until the final three blocks. She said her farewells at the last street of regular houses before downtown Heatherfield proper began. Caleb and Cassidy were turning back towards Will's when a quiet voice called to them both.

"Hey, Caleb! Red! Over here!" The pair saw Peter waving from the alley that ran between the quiet suburban street and the backs of the first row of stores. Moving closer revealed Matt and Nigel were skulking in the mouth of the alley behind him.

"Just who we were looking for," Caleb sighed. He crossed the distance to the trio of young men, frowning grimly. None of them would like what he was about to ask them to do.

"We were just coming to get you," Cassidy said to Matt quietly as they converged. "We need help moving some of the bigger slabs back at the Galemore, to keep searching for the girls."

Matt and Peter looked at each other unhappily. They hadn't had a chance yet to tell the others of Taranee and Elyon's final decision last night. The duplicate bodies they had made of their missing friends were sure to come back to haunt them. It already had, in Matt's case; the last sight of the four girls was what had kept him awake that morning. That, and wondering what else he could have done to save Will and the others.

Cassidy gave all three of the young men a hurried hug. She pulled back at the odd sensation she felt when she got to Nigel, and Matt and Peter chuckled.

"Nigel stayed with Taranee for the afternoon, Red," Pete told her. "That's Mister Huggles … er, Kor. Matt had him with them when he and Nige stopped by just now, and I elected to come help in his place. Kor volunteered to get disguised as Nigel to keep their cover. We were on our way to Cornelia's to collect the cat."

"With any luck, Napoleon's already at the battle-site with Blunk, waiting for us. We just left there, but had to shake the brown-haired girl," Caleb told them in response.

"How'd you beat us to Cornelia's from Sheffield?" Peter asked.

"Uh, not part of the school crowd, Petey," Cassidy blurted. "We went to the Galemore with Blunk from Candracar, searching for fresh clues to find the girls. We took a quick break to go get Napoleon and ditch … Almy, I think Lillian called her?" She pointed a thumb over her shoulder, where Cornelia's friend had gone home.

"Alchemy?" Matt shook his head. "Man, that girl's everywhere, today. I seriously forgot all about her 'til this afternoon. She, Corny and Elly were the glam girls in Sheffield, until W.i.t.c.h. formed last year. I know she took it hard when Cornelia started hanging with Irma and the rest. Before that, A.J. and Irma were almost worse than Lair and Cornelia get. Those two would argue about anything and everything!" He and Peter traded faint smiles, as one of the memories they'd sat through at lunch had been about just that. "If it hadn't been for Elyon and Hay Lin constantly playing peacekeepers, it probably would have ended up way worse."

Kor huffed behind his disguise. Peter shook his head, getting serious again. "Okay, let's get back to the Galemore, and see if we can find any trace of the girls … or the Heart. T'ree was stressed to the max this morning about that still."

"She made me promise to find it, 'No matter what,' just now too," Matt added.

"We've got good news, then," Cassidy said excitedly. The five of them turned towards Will's apartment, and the collapsed Galemore two blocks further. "The Oracle told us before we left that Guardian Vandom gave the Heart of Candracar to someone she trusted. Now we just have to figure out who that could be."

"Hmmmm …" Matt pondered for a moment, as they walked. "She didn't really hang with anybody besides W.i.t.c.h., Wreck 55, and the swim team."

"Could she have left it at the Silver Dragon, for Yan Lin?" Caleb asked. He hoped for a quick solution for this dilemma.

"Yan or Mira would have come straight to Candracar if they'd found it," Cassidy countered.

"What if they just haven't found it, yet?" Matt asked, remembering the girls telling him that Yan had kept the powerful amulet in a keepsake box in a curio cabinet for years. If Will had sent it to its last resting place, it could be months before Yan or Mira had the heart to look in that particular spot again.

He and Caleb (who'd heard the same story from Cornelia along with Elyon, once the two girls were talking again,) traded matching miserable looks. "You want me to ask Yan Lin quick? I could run over there, then meet you all at the collapsed building," the young rebel volunteered.

Matt and Cassidy traded a glance, shrugged, and said "Sure," together, with matching sighs. "Wait 'til after we go to Will's first though," Matt continued.

"Why?" Caleb asked.

"I know the rest of you are anxious to get back to the Galemore and start digging, but … I really don't want to meet Sue Vandom alone." Matt kicked a rock out of his way forlornly.

Peter gave him a sympathetic bop on the shoulder, remembering how Susan had taken last night's many revelations. "C'mon, man. We'll talk to Will's mom together, then see if we can track down the girls or the Heart."

"Yeah …" Matt said, and steeled himself for the coming conversation. He and Will had barely gotten past the point of meeting each other's parents … now this. "Okay, and … thanks." He led the way to the Vandoms'.

_angst_

Elyon awoke late in the Meridian afternoon. Her valet was at her side in seconds, as if mystically conjured. Barely older than Elyon, the grey-skinned girl had the features of someone from cat ancestry: large pointed ears high on her head, vertically slit golden pupils, and obvious sharp teeth and nails. She used those nails now to expertly nab a corner of the light blanket Elyon had entangled herself in. With a deft tweak, she unwound it from around the Queen.

"Are you rested, your Majesty?" she asked demurely.

"As much as I can be with missing friends and a death in the family," Elyon said.

"It's true, then?" her valet asked. Elyon nodded and sat up with a growl.

"What is there left that needs done ..?"

"I am Kitki, your Majesty. Your new valet, as appointed by your Royal Security Commander, Lord Alborn." The grey girl bowed low, to Elyon's embarrassment. "He bade me let you sleep yourself out, after the morning's work. Your rescue by the Guardians was timely, your Majesty. New Moon Festival is this eve. It will forever more be remembered as the return of your reign."

"Here's hoping the rest of it is a heck of a lot less eventful," Elyon muttered sourly. She was still dwelling on the death toll of yesterday's fighting. "I'm afraid I still have a lot to learn about Meridian, Kitki. What's so important about the New Moon Festival?"

"Oh … you don't ..? Oh my …" Kitki faltered.

"What? What is it?"

"I thought, with Lord Cedric as your tutor, and Miranda as your old valet … you would have heard of the New Moon Festival. It … it is the one night of the year that we with changer blood, full shifters or – like myself – those who only have one as an ancestor, cannot hide who we are." She sighed, and her ears wiggled in her irritation.

"Small wonder I never heard of it then," Elyon said deprecatingly. "Cedric and Miranda were both hiding that they were changers until … Phobos' move at my coronation." Her voice turned bitter. She still wasn't sure if her brother's final fate was deserved or not, but even she wasn't vindictive enough to have _wanted_ him dead. "Why make a festival of it though? Isn't there a new moon every month?"

"Oh, no your Majesty. Not like this," Kitki explained, standing straighter. Elyon fought not to giggle, recognizing a 'speech report' posture when she saw one. "Metamoor has two moons, as you've seen, but their phases don't quite match. Except for one night a year, that is. It marks the end of autumn, and even though it's never on the same night each year, it always comes within a week of the last year's time. It was the night of the last great battle of the Changeling Wars, when the shifters and the samelings fought for final control of Meridian, Lycaania, and Jert …"

"H-hang on a second …" Elyon couldn't help interrupting. "This war, … between shapechangers and regular folks … was fought across the _whole world?!"_ She had trouble with the concept of a _magical_ world war. Even with all she'd seen, (and done herself!) she just couldn't conceive of a battle, much less a _coordinated_ one, waged across the whole of medieval Metamoor.

"Yes, my Queen. Sadly, it happened in one of the Dark Times several centuries past, when there was no Light to guide our common peoples. Metamoor has always thrived best within the Light of its Heart, but when no heir of the line sits on the throne, like just recently, Meridian's citizens live in dark days indeed."

"Well, no pressure there," Elyon muttered to herself. Hoping to avoid that dismal line of thought for a while more, she asked, "Okay, remind me … Jert's south, and Lycaania is to our north, right?"

"Yes, your Majesty. Jert stretches from the warm center of Metamoor to her coldest south like an arrow, while Meridian sits astride her temperate north. Lycaania lies in our cold polar waters, and stretches south as well itself on the far side of the world." Kitki demonstrated her descriptions with her hands around a large round vase. Elyon _did_ giggle this time, and Kitki flushed in a combination of satisfaction and embarrassment. It appeared as an almost purple darkening under her grey skin.

"It's kinda like Earth, with less land," Elyon said quietly. She took the vase herself, and with a wave of her hand, she duplicated it. With another figure-eight wave around the two, she created a map of Earth on one, and a map of Metamoor on the other. Kitki gaped and giggled now, at the amazing display of the Heart of Meridian's power.

"That … that's our home …" the valet wondered, her cat-ears twitching again. Elyon nodded. "And that's where the Guardians are from? Where the Commander and the Captain hid with you?"

"Yes. Right … here," Elyon said, pointing out Heatherfield's approximate location on North America's east coast. *1

Her mood sombered, thinking again of her missing friends. "This Festival … is it a cheerful one?" She was put in mind of some of the other war memorial days on Earth, and how they were celebrated, especially near Washington D.C. Elyon felt today should be more in the spirit of _Dio de los Muertos,_ the moody Hispanic day of remembrance for those passed.

"For the samelings, it tends to be," Kitki said, flushing again. "They won, after all. For shifters, it is a night of quiet hiding. Many people do not like us, still."

"I can't see why. People are people, good or bad individually, no matter what shape they are." Elyon fumed quietly. Apparently racial hatred wasn't just an Earth pastime. Then a glorious idea occurred to her. "Hey, Kitki, if I make a bigger production of _re_-assuming the throne, do you think we could turn that around?"

"Your Majesty asks _me?"_ Kitki squeaked. "I … milady, I'm just a handmaid. I …honestly could not say." Elyon's resolve firmed.

"All right, fair enough. To the throne room, faithful valet. We have a new holiday to decree." This was her world, now. Time to make things better.

*1 (Author's note: I looked; there's actually a Heatherfield in West Virginia, right on the Potomac! ;D _A J._)


	20. Chapter 20

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 20_

The teens reappeared in the living room of Susan's apartment, startling her, Dean, and Peter. After calling over at the Browns and hearing that his sister went to catch Stephanie, Peter Cook had dialed up Susan. She in turn had told him about the teens and Regents heading off to fight the octopi that kept attacking them, and Pete had gone straight to the Vandom-Payton apartment to wait with Sue and Dean.

As soon as she saw her brother, Taranee practically teletransported across the room into his arms. "Oh, Pete, you would not _believe_ the day we've had." He gave her the best reassuring hug he could with her wings in the way.

"Tell me all about it T'ree," he told her.

"I will when it's over. We still have to go back to Antarctica."

"Ant_ARCTICA?!"_ Peter whipped around and glared at Susan and Dean. "You didn't say anything about Antarctica!" He held his sister out at arm's length, and gave her a once-over. "How bad are these things?"

"Three-foot-long flying calamari with a taste for magic and no fear of combat," Matt answered for her. With an all over shake, he shed his Shagon guise. Back to his normal teen self, he wrinkled his face up for a second, then shook his head until the others could hear his cheeks snapping with the force of his movement.

"What the H E double hockey-sticks, Olsen?" Alchemy asked.

"That mask …" Matt muttered, breathing hard still, "doesn't _move_, Jones. My cheeks froze to it." The other teens laughed.

Susan and Dean crossed the room to Stephanie and Elyon, still standing where they had teleed in. Once there, Susan gave Steph as careful a looking over as Peter had to Taranee. "You're okay? Nothing broken? Nothing frozen?"

"No, Aunt Sue." Stephanie smiled tolerantly. Susan had good reason to be this paranoid, after all.

"We're all fine, too," Elyon said impishly. She kept trying to make Susan feel more included in the business of the Infinite Dimensions to draw her out of grief and anger. She wasn't alone.

Kor shrank back to his Huggles persona and took three leaps: to couch, then bookcase, then up to Susan's shoulder. He nuzzled Susan's cheek comfortingly.

"Oh, I'm not mad at you, dear," the young mother said, patting him. She turned and pointed imperiously at Matt. "You, young man, have a lot of explaining to do, though. Like …"

"Just a second, Sue. The kids said they have to go back," Dean interrupted. "Let's save the interrogation for later, okay?" He looked them all over, noticing how tired but wired they all looked. "Does it have to be right away?" He directed that to Taranee and Napoleon, who seemed the least exhausted of them.

"Well, we did our best to trap the survivors," Taranee managed. Her brother and Susan both cringed at that. "I know; it kind of got to me too, but …"

"This ain't win, lose, or draw," Napoleon said. "There's only one way to escape a predator for good. You've got to turn the game around and make them the prey."

"What about peace negotiations?" Elyon broke in. "These things are obviously intelligent …"

Alchemy "_Yeah_"ed, checking one of her wings for overt damage. Elyon continued.

"Maybe we can …"

"Listen your Highness," Napoleon snapped out. "I'm not bein' figurative, here … These thing are magical predators of the highest order. They _eat magic._ On otherwise-asleep Earth, that means _you kids, me, and the mouse!"_ He huffed for a second. Huggles chirred from Susan's shoulder. "Sorry, Kor. Just … tellin' it like it is. Alright … plannin' time, kids. We know where we gotta go back to, we know who we'll be facing, and we know how best to fight 'em." He strode over to the bookshelf behind Dean and Sue and nabbed the 'A' encyclopedia down.

"Here, let me," Stephanie said, jumping forward along with Alchemy when they saw him trying to flip pages haphazardly with his claws.

"Hmm, not very helpful, is it?" Alchemy asked, as the three looked at the one map of Antarctica.

"When were these printed?" Stephanie flipped back to the copyright page. "Urg." Taranee came over.

"Wow, these things're Cassidy's age," she blurted.

Dean gave a strangled _"What?!"_

"_Subjective_ age," Taranee amended with a chuckle.

"Yeah, those were mine in high school," Susan sighed. "We've had the net since Will was old enough to read, so I never thought of getting an updated set."

"Yay for Wikipedia …" Nigel snickered.

"Speaking of," Steph snapped, nabbing her phone from her low-cut waistline, where she'd tucked it when she found out their Guardian uniforms didn't have pockets. Her blue Razr spoke up right away.

"_About time, Miss Stephie. What do you need to know?" _it asked in a high-pitched version of her voice. It had called up the net and gone to Wikipedia when Nigel had mentioned it.

"Uh, where in Antarctica were we, _Pian?"_ Stephanie asked.

"_Approximately 85__o__ west longitude, at 77__o__ south latitude, in the shadow of Vinson Massif. I got the location from the U S satellite over Amundsen-Scott Station when I had him forward your call to Mother Susan," Pian_ responded.

Dean gave Susan a supportive squeeze when she gasped.

"Vinson Massif?" Alchemy started.

Stephanie looked up from her electric-blue phone's display, and nodded. She passed _Pian_ around, and each of them got to see the tiny map with Antarctica's tallest mountain and their previous location displayed. Taranee gulped.

"H-how far from our original entry point - and that first battle - is that rift?" Elyon wondered.

"_Half a minute," Pian_ replied. The kids, Dean, and Susan waited, but that was all the phone said.

"_Pian?"_ Steph asked.

"_That was the distance. Half a minute, as measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds on the GPS registry, in a nearly-straight line from your initial entry point in Chilean Antarctic Territory towards the magnetic south pole and the crevasse you were all in last." Pian_ sounded smug.

"So how far is that in miles?" Nigel muttered to Taranee.

"Don't know, Beast, and I'm not gonna worry about it. We're not flying that leg again." She was now looking up Vinson Massif in the encyclopedia, and _'Hmm'_ing over the sparse facts there.

"What's wrong, Nige? Afraid you'll exceed your mileage warranty?" Peter teased, giving his sister's boyfriend a friendly clout on the back. The other boys and the two adults chuckled as well.

"Okay, your Highness, what kind of backup were you thinking of for this underground arctic expedition?"

"We could get some of the northern lurdens, from Lycaania. They're pretty well hardened to the cold, since their homeland is like Siberia. Add a couple extra experienced commanders to keep 'em on-task, and we should be set, right?"

"Adequately supplied, they should be enough," Dean chimed in, thinking of the two unsuccessful campaigns waged against hearty, frozen Russia. Taranee caught the thought from him, and shuddered at the additional thought of a drawn-out war in Antarctica.

"Reconnaissance, first," the Fire Guardian blurted, seconded by Alchemy and Susan.

"How?" Nigel asked. "I mean, invisible's easy enough, but we're kinda out-of-stock on a small, fast flyer without Hay-hay …" He clapped a hand over his own mouth before any of the others could turn their mournful glares on him. "Sorry, sorry …" he mumbled through his fingers. Taranee shut her eyes, and all the others wanted to join her as a pair of slow tears fell down her cheeks.

"I am _so_ sorry, Beauty," Nigel told her. He lay a tentative hand on her arm. She accepted his quiet consolation through that light touch for a moment, then she shook him off as she straightened.

"Not the time, Nige." She turned once, looking over the others, and settled on Napoleon and Huggles. The cat was still in his Regent form in the middle of the room, while Will's dormouse was perched on Susan's shoulder, one paw on her ear for balance. "How fast can you two move in your regular animal forms?" Taranee asked the pair.

"Well, I never clocked myself exactly, but I'd have to say at least two-and-a-half to three times faster than a normal cat." Kor chirred and nodded his agreement with that estimate. Napoleon looked back at Taranee sharply. "You thinking what I am, doll?" She nodded.

"We can open up a hole you two can squeeze through invisibly, to recon the caves while we're mustering the troops. Then with a better idea of what's in there, we can … finish this." Taranee and Elyon's eyes met as she gulped out the last, and both paled.

"Alright, let's get back and finish this," Matt said. Huggles nuzzled Susan's cheek one more time, and jumped down to the floor between his two partners.

"Wait …" Susan started. All the young magical warriors turned to face her. "It … just … do you all want something to eat, first?" she stammered. "I made all this spaghetti …" She waved half-heartedly at her dinner table, already set for the four people she'd originally intended to feed. There was an enormous pot of steaming noodles in the center of the table, and a stack of extra plates as well.

"Aunt Sue ..?" Stephanie began questioningly. Dean came to his girrfriend's rescue.

"We know from Eleanor that you all went straight into this fight from their place without any time to refuel after practice … or that second attack. This should give you all …" he faltered.

"Something to keep going on ..." Susan managed to add.

"Thanks, Aunt Susan," Taranee said, stepping forward and giving the staggered mother of her missing friend a grateful hug.

"You just promise me, Taranee Cook … no more surprises … okay?" Susan said tearfully, returning the embrace.

"Not 'til we can bring you the one we all want," Matt replied in the Fire Guardian's stead. He and Mister Huggles were both looking wistfully at the portrait of Will that Elyon had gifted the grieving mother with that first awful morning. Stephanie had hung it over the cardboard fireplace Dean had gotten them for their Christmas stockings. The trio had agreed to leave it up – with Will's stocking still hanging from it – until she, Irma, Cornelia, and Hay were found.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 21_

Dean awoke with a start at Susan's hysterical scream. She was sitting bolt upright next to him, her hand outstretched before her, and the most agonized look he'd seen yet on her face.

"What is it, Sue?" he asked, sitting up warily.

"I … I thought I heard Will … calling for me …" she whispered, and crumpled in on herself before him. Dean wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed. It turned ragged quickly as her as-yet-unrecovered throat protested the fresh abuse.

"Aunt Sue? You okay?" Stephanie asked from the doorway.

"Stephanie? When did you get here?" Susan croaked, looking confused.

"Uh, last night, right after school, Aunt Sue. You picked me up from the Davidsons'."

Susan shook her head a couple times, trying to defrag thoughts she couldn't get to make sense. She knew something horrible had happened last night … Then her eyes fell on the priceless portrait of Will that Elyon (the _magic PRINCESS!)_ had given her in the wee hours of the morning, and it all came slamming home again.

"D … Dean?" she moaned.

"I'm right here," he answered instantly. "What do you need?"

"I need _Will back!"_ she cried. _"I need her here in my arms! Not out saving the universe! She's my little girl, Dean, not some magical superhero! She should be worrying about her grades, and first dates, and her favorite television shows, not stopping the superdimensional freak-of-the-week from breaking the rules of reality!"_ Her voice broke again, and Stephanie (_'Bless her,'_ Dean thought.) disappeared only to bring her grieving godmother a fresh cold glass of water … or so he thought.

Susan took a large gulp of the innocently-clear liquid, only to gasp and nearly drop the glass. Her eyes watered. "Whe … where … did you …find vodka?" she finally managed to gasp out, glaring woefully up at her inherited extra child.

"When nobody came back last night, and dinner cooled down, I went looking for something to put it away in. I found that in the cupboard with the cooking oil, second try." Stephanie smiled back sheepishly. "I didn't think you'd throw it down like that, or I'd have warned ya. Honest, I figure the smell alone would have told you what it was …"

"Ah … all due respect kiddo, but I don't think her sense of smell's up to par, right now …" Dean said, as he gently took the lethal cupful from Sue's shaking grip. He nodded significantly at the tumbler of water still on the nightstand, and Stephanie handed it mutely to Susan instead, blushing.

"Sorry about that … force of habit, I guess," Steph said. She took the offending cup back from him and perched it on the nearby dresser. "it kinda became a habit with my parents … After one of their marathon rows, I'd just kinda hand 'em each a big shot of something and send 'em off to separate rooms to sleep it off. It was honestly quieter listening to them snore than shout, after a while …"

"Stephanie?" Dean questioned. He'd heard all level of horror stories of dysfunctional home-life from students over the years, but … the old adage 'too close to home' came to mind as he remembered his own father, and the quiet social alcoholism that had ushered Donald Collins to his early grave.

"Hey, no worries here, Teach. The stuff makes me run the other way. I've seen it in action too often in Fadden Hills. On the upside," Stephanie added with a self-deprecating smile. "I'd make one heck of a bartender. I can tell to the ounce when someone's gotten to their limit … and how to get their keys from 'em, too." Sue and Dean looked at each other, frankly aghast, then he sighed, and Susan gulped down the rest of her tepid water, preparing to yell some more.

She never got the chance, however. A knock at the apartment door got all of them out of Susan's back bedroom. Stumbling to answer it, she couldn't help wondering if this was fresh news or not, and whether it was good, bad, or other. Sue wasn't sure if she could handle any of the above at the moment, as wrung-out as she felt.

Dean got to the door first. Opening it as far as the chain Stephanie had redone would allow, he peeked out. A pair of hazel eyes that matched his blinked back, and a sadly familiar redhead smiled tentatively.

"Dean, right? Hi, it's Cassidy. We – Matt, Caleb, Peter, Nigel, and I – we … wanted to see if there was anything we could do for Susan. Can … can we come in?"

"Sure … Just a sec." Dean shut the door long enough to fumble the chain off, and invited the five young adults in.

Stephanie did a double-take as Cassidy walked through the door, thinking for a second that Will had managed to come back despite the ominous messages last night on the net and the insider news Dean Collins had let her in on that morning. Then she noted the different shade of red to the other girl's hair and her freckles, and Stephanie almost sobbed in echo of her adoptive aunt Susan. The bereft woman was still leaning against her as well as the living-room wall.

Dean did his best to introduce the new arrivals to Stephanie and Susan. Will's mom only knew two of the four boys as names really. Matt and Nigel had been Will and Taranee's dates for a 'Battle of the Bands' earlier that year. She did remember that they'd both been at the Galemore to help look, though. Caleb she had met at the Silver Dragon, and Cassidy and Peter were all-too-familiar after last night. Sue traded a shared look of pain with the Cooks' older boy.

Stephanie did her best to remember names as the introductions flew past, but beyond recalling later that Peter was Taranee's brother, and the girl's name was Cassie, she quickly retreated from the heated conversation that immediately swallowed the group. Then the quiet auburn-haired boy came over to the armchair she had hidden in.

"What do you want ..?" Steph asked leadingly, glancing up from the muted news she had on, with the closed captions running.

"Nigel," he growled, holding out a hand. Kor remembered that that was how people greeted each other.

"I'm Stephanie," she replied haltingly, and took his hand. Both of them hurriedly let go at the strong static jolt they got. Kor fled back to the kitchen, while Steph tried to settle back into watching HNN again. But between the sudden dizzying headache that overtook her, and Heatherfield Network News focusing solely on the collapse of the prominent downtown office building, she just clicked the TV off in distress and lay her head back.

Her hand brushed against the cold lump of the Heart of Candracar under her shirt. Except it wasn't cold anymore; it was tingling under her touch, and warming up in a hurry. She glanced down, and saw that it was starting to glow as well again. With a furtive glance at the others over the breakfast counter, she took off for her half-room, hand firmly over the now brilliant gem in an effort to hide its light.

Matt looked up as the blonde girl disappeared from the living room just when Kor stepped back to his side. "Who's she, again?" he asked, a strange feeling in his gut.

"Stephanie." Dean and 'Nigel' both replied distractedly. Susan was still asking them of the possibility that Will and the other girls might have taken refuge on some other dimension, since after all …

"… they are _infinite_, right?"

Cassidy hung her head for a moment. "The Oracle believes they are somewhere near, _reachable_ even, if only we can figure out where, and _how_, to look. We've got somebody … _two _somebodies, actually, looking for clues at the Galemore right now. Our other hope is finding the Heart of Candracar, which the Council says Will left with someone she trusts …" Cassidy looked hopefully at Susan Vandom, but the young mother just shook her head.

"If Will had given me that damned necklace last night, believe you me, I'd have handed it over first thing ... I don't want anything more to do with this. If you find it, and it helps find Will, fine. But don't expect me to jump for joy over the cursed thing's recovery." She folded her arms over her chest.

"Sue …"

"Missus Vandom," Matt started to plead at the same time as Dean. She held a hand up to stop them.

"I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, it's over. Tell me Wil's back, or don't tell me anything about any of it at all. Will is missing in action, and I … I … oh, God …" Sue broke down into fresh tears as she thought of everything else she'd have to do to cover her daughter's mysterious disappearance, starting with her ex-husband and Sheffield Institute. Especially if it took longer than the upcoming Christmas holiday break to find her and the other girls … _'Christmas,'_ she thought with dismay. Her little girl might not be there for Christmas …

She turned hopeless, haunted eyes up at Dean, and he wordlessly wrapped his arms around her again. Cassidy broke into fresh tears as well at Susan's renewed sobs.

Stephanie came back out, her slim frame engulfed in an oversized, shapeless black sweatshirt and her most pre-distressed pair of jeans. One look at her freshly-crying godmother, and she bustled into the kitchen. She was back a minute later with a steaming cup she handed to Sue.

Susan took the cup cautiously, and gave it a wary sniff.

"It's just coffee, honest," her new daughter swore, hands raised. At the hopeful looks of Dean and Cassidy, she snickered. "The rest of you'll have to wait a few minutes, that was the last in the thermal jug." She gave Susan a reassuring smile, and went back into the kitchen.

"It's just coffee?" Cassidy asked Dean quietly, as Susan took a careful sip, then sighed.

"Long story," he replied. "Look, you're all going back to the Galemore to keep looking, right? Count me in. It's the least I can do …"

"Count _us_ in, Teach," Steph amended. She had come back out of the kitchen. "If you're willing to wait five, we can take the coffee, too."

"How did you become so domestic?" Sue couldn't help but ask.

"Ya know how they say 'Take care of your kids, 'cause someday they'll be taking care of you'? Sure wish somebody would have warned me my turn would come early," Steph blurted, inadvertently reminding Sue and Dean of their interrupted conversation from earlier. "Alright, I'm gonna go find my boots. B R B." She fled back to her room again.

"You … _inherited_ her?" Caleb asked, still confused about the circumstances.

"That's really oversimplifying, but basically … yeah," Susan sighed. "I was named Stephanie's Godmother in Rick ans Jane's will, which means when they died, _I_ became her mom, legally."

"So now she's Will's sister?" 'Nigel' asked Matt quietly.

"Huh, yeah … I guess so.' Matt gave his fellow Regent a faint nod.

"Good. I like her. She takes good care of mm … Missus Vandom." Matt blanched. Kor had nearly called Susan 'Mom'.

Cassidy had caught it as well. "I'll get the coffee." As she turned into the kitchen alcove, she gave Susan a warm smile. "Are you coming to search, as well?"

"For Will, and the others, yes," Sue said, looking at Peter and then Caleb, who she knew hyper Hay Lin considered an honorary brother. "The rest of you can waste your time on the Heart of Candlejar …"

"Candracar," Cassidy corrected automatically. Susan just gave her a withering glare. Cass held her hands up in surrender, and went for the coffee.

The others were too busy watching the byplay between the two women to see the shocked look on Stephanie's face at the last thing Cassidy had said.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 22_

A quick plateful of spaghetti each later, (Susan hadn't been kidding about the amount she'd cooked,) the nine young heroes reconvened in the Vandom-Payton living room. There, the Guardians transformed.

"You sure about this, Mattie?" Napoleon asked his partner from Alchemy's arms. Huggles was perched on Stephanie's shoulder.

"Yeah," Matt replied. He and Elyon were standing to one side "You and Kor are our recon squad, and Elyon's going back to Meridian for the reinforcements. Hopefully, the Oracle's right, and that first foray put the 'pod's main gun out of commission for now. But we don't know if they have a backup, so one of us should stay with Lillian, now."

"That also gives us emergency cavalry in case this goes south," Alchemy said. Then she added with a blush, "Well, further south than it already _is_, anyway. I mean, Antarctica, right?" The others grinned around her.

"Good idea, Alchemy. In fact …" Stephanie grabbed her phone _Pian_ back up and opened her contacts list, looking at Matt. "What're your digits, Olsen?"

He rattled them off, and _Pian_ said, _"Saved, Regent. Any others, Miss Stephie?"_

"Yeah, we should all do that," Elyon said, pulling her own new cell phone out. She tittered sheepishly as she turned it on. "Heh, never been used …"

"_Why would it be, when all your friends are reachable with a thought?"_ Taranee sent, and all the Guardians and Regents laughed.

Dean, now used to the teens and their silent act, just cleared his throat, and told Elyon and Stephanie his number as well as Cassidy's, in case any of them had to get a message back to Candracar mid-mission.

"Not that we're not glad she's still keepin' her hand in the game, what with Yan and Mira's steppin' down, but I thought Cass was too busy getting' back to the business of living?" Napoleon asked afterwards.

"Cassidy's been out of touch with Earth for over thirty years," Dean replied. "She had to relearn how to type first, before I could even start her on computer basics." He turned to Susan. "Believe it or not, she still wants to be a pediatrician."

Susan shook her head ruefully. "Pretty ambitious of her, that's for sure." She gave him an unexpected slug to the shoulder. "You know, you could have brought her over here to learn about computers …"

Dean rubbed his arm. "Well, she wasn't sure if she was welcome here …" he temporized. Sue _'Tssk'_ed.

"My grievances are with the Council, not Cassidy," she said comfortingly. At the confused looks all the others traded, Sue sighed. "Look, kids … I'm sorry … At least about any grief I may have given you personally over these last few weeks …" Their doubt was painfully obvious. "I … I've had a chance to think about all of this just now … while you were all in Antarctica ..."

"Just … now?" Stephanie choked out. When she thought of the sheer Hell she'd been in since the funeral, unable to talk to her last remaining parent about the newest, hardest things happening to her …

"It was what you said before you left, Steph," Susan told her. "About this not being just about you anymore, or Will. And then the Almamater …"

"Altermere," Nigel and Taranee autocorrected.

"… said I should save my anger for our true enemies," Sue continued without pause.

"Just now …" Stephanie repeated quietly. A lightbulb burst across the room, and Elyon, Matt and Alchemy jumped from the _'Pop!'_ behind them. Gen and Nigel traded nervous looks.

"Stephanie," Taranee began, reaching for her teammate's arm. She could 'hear' the roiling chaos in the blonde girl's mind. There was a storm brewing there, looking for somewhere - or some_one_ - to break loose on.

Napoleon could sense it too, from her aura, and the fact that Stephanie's (and Huggles' on her shoulder) hair was starting to waver in a nonexistent wind. Kor chattered nervously, and Napoleon looked at Matt for help.

"Steph, c'mon," Matt said as he stepped to her other side. As his and Taranee's hands made simultaneous contact with her arms, an actinic burst of static raced across the three.

Stephanie gasped and started crying, 'hearing' through Taranee what the others were all thinking over her insipient fight with Susan. But before she could act one way or the other over that new information, something equally unexpected caught all of them off-guard.

Matt's cell phone started playing Evanescence's _"Bring me to Life"_ from the first chorus at full volume. The young Regent jumped almost a foot, and the others all backed away hastily.

"Dude, I thought you hated Amy Lee," Nigel started to say worriedly.

"I do," Matt grumbled, trying to get the playback to stop. Nothing worked, not even plucking the battery out of the back. "I don't even have this tune _on_ here …" When he said that, Nigel and Taranee exchanged a startled glance, then both turned to Stephanie.

"Are you doing that?" Taranee asked their new Quintessence Guardian.

"N-no …" Steph said. "Not my kinda music. I'm a Hannah fan."

"No, she's right. That's … _Will's …"_ Dean managed to croak. He had visited often enough in the past few months, and he'd become familiar with Will's preferred music. She tended to play it at ear-splitting levels in her room while he sat and watched television with Susan. Dean knew he recognized this particular song from a night Will had used it – on repeat – to try to drown out one of the Presidential Election debates the two adults were watching.

It had barely been a week later when Will had cornered him after class to apologize for just that incident, and to tell him that she approved of him dating her mother after all. She had apparently heard from a 'reliable source' about his heroic rescue of Susan at the boardwalk carnival.

"W-Will? Can you hear me? Us?" Susan pleaded to the open air of the apartment. The song cut off mid-verse, and Matt sighed in relief. He hadn't quite lied; As a fellow vocalist, he could appreciate Amy's amazing range. But her high notes made his ears ache. He noticed that Nigel, with his newly-enhanced hearing, had been cringing as well.

"Will?" Stephanie called out as well. Inspiration struck, and she dug her phone back out, and put the Heart next to it. "Willie? C'mon, sis, don't tease us," she cajoled.

A sad Taranee turned away, as a gust of wind from nowhere swept through the room. Everyone else was turning to check for an open window, when Nigel looked up in wonder as it circled around him. "T'ree," he uttered. Her whirl of thoughts caught up to his, and she gasped.

"No way it's that easy …" she said, her eyes tearing up at her own lack of intuition. "Steph," the Fire Guardian began. "Use the _spell!"_ She prayed their substitute Guardian would figure it out.

"What spe ...? OH!" Stephanie looked wildly around for a minute, then reached out and grabbed the portrait of Will from over the faux-fireplace. Looking squarely of the picture Elyon had created of her missing sister, she called out "Pord Lartsa!"

Elyon and Matt traded looks of trepidation, she holding her breath and he with his fingers crossed … ALL of them. '_Would it work?' _They both wondered.

Nigel crossed to stand by Taranee, holding her hands as a brilliant light filled the room from the Heart of Candracar. When it cleared, all of them blinked and looked over towards Stephanie. She was still standing by the fireplace, her blue Razr and the Heart in one hand, the painting in the other. And behind the portrait was standing …

"_WILL!"_ Susan cried out, rushing forward to engulf the confused young redhead Steph had summoned from the ether.

"Oooof! Mom! Ow! Hi! Hey, what …?" she fell silent suddenly, as she took in the ranged Guardians, only one of them familiar, along with Dean, Peter, Matt, Napoleon, Huggles and Elyon. "Uh, what'd I miss?"

"It doesn't matter right now," Susan told her tearfully. "You're back, you're safe, you're …"

"Not Will," Taranee blurted, coming forward and plucking the young girl from Susan's arms with her Guardian strength. She turned the red-haired girl around and looked in her eyes. "Are you?"

"Of course she is!" Susan began hotly.

"Of course I'm not," the girl replied, and all the others blinked in confusion, except Napoleon. He hopped out of Alchemy's arms, strode forward, and gave the new girl's ankle a sniff.

"Whoa, she stinks of magic worse than Mira Lin," he said, glancing up at Taranee. The Fire girl nodded back tersely.

"But I'm betting not half as much as Cass," Taranee countered, giving Dean Collins a significant glance. He did a double-take in surprise, looking back and forth between Taranee and the freshly conjured 'Will'.

"She's not my daughter?" Susan asked in disbelief. "Nonsense! What's your birthday?" she directed at the redhead.

"Uh, May twentieth, Mom."

"No it isn't, Willie!" Stephanie yelped. "C'mon, you're a week older'n me, and mine's before the end of this month, sis …" She trailed off leadingly.

"Will's birthday is January nineteenth," Taranee agreed, and Susan started nodding as well. "But _she's_ only a year old," the Guardian continued, pointing at 'Will'. "She was born last May just before the Spring Dance."

"Hey, wasn't that the day everyone thought Will had gone nuts?" Nigel asked Matt. The teen Regent nodded, then hung his head. It had been the last day he and Will had gotten to really spend together before Nerissa had turned him into Shagon. She had already been hunting the girls relentlessly beforehand though, including messing with Will's …

"Astral Drop," Matt said quietly. 'Will' gasped out in shock, then sprang forward, slapping his face as hard as she could.

"I am _not _an_ Astral Drop!"_ she screamed at him, making the whole room rattle.

"No, you're an Altermere," Taranee grinned. She reached out again and pulled the new girl into a warm hug. "Welcome back to the world of the living, sweetie."

"Thanks, Taranee, you know how much that means to me … But … what's wrong, T? Where's the other Will?"

Elyon, with only her one experience with Astral Drops or Altermeres to draw on, gave her a sharp glare. "Don't you know? Aren't you … part _her?"_

"Uh, _no,"_ 'Will' said, giving Elyon a dark look. "That was Nerissa's whole point. I'm _not_ Will. Not anymore. I'm my own person. I'm … I'm …" She faltered, turned forlornly and looked at Susan. "Mothers name their kids … Who am I, Mom?"

"You're not Will, but you are …" Susan said in a daze. She walked all the way around her newest daughter, a mystic copy of her missing one, and with a small smile, said "You're Mina." The Altermere gave a glad yip, and jumped back into Susan's arms from Taranee's.

"Mina?" Dean asked. Susan gave him a teary grin, holding her 'extra' daughter.

"Well, Will's never using the other half of her name ..." she explained. Stephanie gave a bark of a laugh, and wrapped her arms around Susan and Mina, her earlier anger all but forgotten.

"Welcome to the party, sis! Now if you'll excuse us, the rest of us have to step out for a minute and deal with some unexpected crashers." She turned back to her waiting team.

"Wait, where's Will, T? And where're Hay and Irma and Cornelia?" Mina begged, knowing there was something important that the others weren't telling her. The uncomfortable looks they all traded proved it.

"Uh, the thing is … Mina ..." Nigel began. Taranee pinched him to shut him up.

"There've been some problems, and some changes, Mina," she said in his stead. "And one of them is a spare enemy we have to go put back where they came from, wherever that is … but these guys can tell you everything." Taranee pointed to Dean, Peter, and Susan. "They know as much as we do, now. But we really have to go, now."

"Stephanie? You're still just going to go?" Susan pleaded, her eyes looking haunted. Steph sighed; she knew why. Will still wasn't back. Mina was, (From what Taranee had said, the girl had had something bad happen to her the last time she was … Summoned? Conjured? Created?) but she _wasn't_ Will. They were back where they had started. Then a harsh idea came to the blonde girl.

"Would you rather I send Mina instead?"

Susan's shocked_ "NO!"_ and her protective turn with Will's Altermere made them all cringe.

"_That was cold, Steph,"_ Alchemy told her telepathically.

"_But necessary,"_ Stephanie returned, with a mental sigh of relief.

"_Can we just do this?"_ Taranee asked. She stepped back over and gave Mina another welcoming hug, and told her, "We'll B R B before you can miss us, sweetie." She gave Susan a nod and sent, just to her, _"Don't worry, Aunt Susan. You're never gonna lose one of your girls. Not on MY watch!"_ Susan nodded back, acknowledging the truth she could see blazing behind the Fire Guardian's gaze.

With that, Elyon, the Guardians, and the Regents all disappeared again.


	23. Chapter 23

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 23_

There was a great commotion already going on at the Galemore when the eight of them arrived. Cassidy put the two thermos bottles she'd been carrying down to shake hands with Officer Tom Lair and his partner Paul McManus.

The red-haired girl was turning McManus around to introduce him to the others when Susan gasped and turned to Tom. "Weren't… weren't we… right here… last night?" She managed to squeak out, remembering running into him at this very corner while she was out buying cheese ravioli. They'd chatted for a few minutes, oblivious that their two daughters and their friends had been battling for their - and everybody else's - lives less than a block away.

Tom nodded once, just as heart-broken. Paul looked away. He'd called in sick last night, and Tom had walked their usual beat alone. He felt even worse now than he had fighting through food poisoning yesterday.

Something tugged on Matt's pant leg. Looking down, he saw a sulking Napoleon. _"What is it?"_ Matt asked the cat telepathically. He'd have to remember to thank Taranee for the coaching next time he saw her.

"_These lummoxes were already here when I showed up. The passling took off for the Lins' to wait."_

Matt looked back up at the scrambling construction and emergency workers all over the sight of the collapse. "Gah, we're never gonna be able to keep looking now … The officials have arrived."

"Don't say no yet, Olsen," Tom told him. He still hadn't heard how young Will's formerly delinquent boyfriend was involved yet, but he meant to ask him before the day was out. "Volunteers are always welcome." He clapped a hand on Matt and Peter's backs, and was about to lead the two boys toward the Galemore when an uproar started amid the rescue crews. "Now what?"

"I'll find out," Paul told them all, holding a hand out to the others. He jogged off, not noticing that he was immediately followed by the whole group, Cassidy just remembering to nab Sue's two thermoses of coffee back up. No sooner had they all gotten to the edge of the collapsed building's ruins, than Peter and Matt both had to whirl around, sickened with realization.

The workers, alerted by a K-9 unit, had crane-lifted the slab Matt and his partners had worked with last night. There was a concerted gasp as the four bodies came into view, followed by a woman's scream, the sound of another woman yelling for a tarp, and at least three people getting sick,

One of them was Stephanie, who barely missed Napoleon. She was vaguely aware of 'Nigel' kneeling next to her, keeping her hair out of her path of disgorgement. When she could, she gave him a nod of thanks and he did his best to grin back in a reassuring manner. Kor grabbed a thermos from Cassidy and handed it to the nauseous girl, saying, "Rinse?" She nodded again, and grimaced around a mouthful of coffee and acid, then spat it further so it wouldn't splatter the first mess.

Dean was holding Susan up, as she sobbed anew. Cassidy and Caleb both just looked on in silent shock as a grey tarp was hurriedly brought from over the worker's refreshments to cover the bodies. Napoleon, who'd jumped up on a crate to get a better look, (and to get out of Stephanie's immediate range,) heard the young rebel murmur, _"Mei-mei."_ The cat-Regent's heart broke a little for the twice dispossesed lad. First his father was captured and imprisoned, leaving a boy to be raised to fight the forces who'd done it. Now his sister-in-spirit was gone, perhaps for good, if they couldn't hurry up and find these 'extra Guardians' the passling had told him about before going to hide behind the Silver Dragon.

A breeze stirred up, swirling last night's powder light snowfall around them. 'Nigel' blinked then gave Caleb an unexpected one-armed hug. "Don't worry _shiongdi_. All will be well." Everybody else looked at him in confusion, and Kor gave a strained smile, unused to the expression.

"Thanks, Nigel. That … helps," Caleb said after a second. He smiled back, and the others returned to staring at the macabre scene before them … or not looking, in Susan and Stephanie's case.

"Paul, could you … give us a couple minutes?" Tom asked him quietly.

"Yeah … sure, Tom …" Officer McManus left the forlorn group to see to crowd control. The minute he was out of earshot, Susan rounded on Cassidy.

"I thought you said they're still _alive_!" She hissed through her ragged throat.

"I did! The oracle told us …"

"Wait, what? They're still alive?" Tom blurted.

"By all accounts, the girls were still in their Zenith forms when the Galemore collapsed." Cassidy turned to Peter. "No offence to your sister's … dispersal theory, but the Council is sure that the girls survived, _here_, somehow. We just have to find them …"

"But we just …" Dean started, aiming a floundering hand at the tarp. Sue moaned and grabbed his hand back in a crushing grip.

"Hang on a minute! Are they or aren't they?" Tom rumbled at Cassidy, who cringed. Caleb opened his mouth to speak, but Officer Lair continued. "You said last night you found Taranee stuck between her… forms. What's to say the other four," and he pointed at the covering tarp as well, "Aren't … I dunno, _comatose_ 'r somethin', and waiting to be ... woke up … as well?"

"Those bodies aren't the girls," Matt blurted before anyone else could chime in with another hopeful argument.

Susan gasped. Peter blanched. Tom and Dean traded incredulous looks, while Cassidy and Caleb both heaved sighs of relief.

"Then … who?" Susan managed to squeak out, her hands clinging to Dean's still to keep herself from running over and flinging the tarp away.

"They're … rats," Peter managed thickly. He fervently hoped Nigel was keeping Taranee from watching the news. Bad enough that view of the bodies would be played over and over again, he knew. "It was … T'ree and Elyon's idea, last night … well, this morning anyway, when we all stopped searching at five."

"Why didn't you say something then?" Tom accused, before Sue had the chance to go from chalk-white to blood-red in rage again at this fresh news.

"We didn't think they'd find them this fast," Matt muttered miserably. "S'why we put them under the block we did …" He traded a look with 'Nigel'.

Tom sighed. "Okay, but if that isn't them, they're still out there, _somewhere_, right?"

"Candracar's Council is sure of that, Officer Lair. They sent us back to keep looking," Cassidy told him, "As well as to help the families of our Guardians."

"How are you supposed to help us?" Susan bit out, glaring at Cass.

"I … I'm not sure …" Cassidy replied, looking from her to Tom.

"Oh, _there's_ a surprise … The Council didn't have any contingency plans for this, huh? 'Let's send some little girls to fight our battles for us, but not think about what to do if _something goes WRONG!' "_ Susan's voice climbed shrilly at the end, and Paul came running back over.

"What's wrong? What is it?" he asked.

"Everything, at this point, Paul," Tom told him, grabbing his partner's arm and turning them both back towards the curious rescue workers nearby. "C'mon, let's get this circus under control, so I can be the one who tells my family first …" He looked back over his shoulder at Sue and Cassidy. The pair was fuming silently, glaring in opposite directions. It reminded him of Susan and Will's frequent arguments with a wrench. "Sue, I'll see you all at the Lins' tonight. Okay? Try …" Tom had to look away for a moment himself. "Try and keep the others calm until then, alright?" He held her gaze for a minute, until she nodded, bleary-eyed, and fell against Dean again sobbing. Tom cleared his throat, "C'mon, Paul …"

"I am _so_ sorry," Officer McManus uttered quietly, before he followed his partner back into the collapse.

"Look, we've still got to tell the other parents the … good news." Caleb sighed, hanging his head. "And we'd better do it now, before this …"

"_Hits_ the news," Susan moaned, pointing to a HNN van disgorging its camera crew and correspondent on the far side of the former Galemore.

"Geez…" Peter swore. "A'ight, give us the whole spiel from the Council, Red. We can split up and speed this up. Right, Nigel?"

"Rright," Kor growled.

"Okay, here goes …" Cass, with Caleb's help, told those gathered around her the whole conversation in the Chamber of the Council of Candracar.

"That … actually _is_ good news," Matt said finally, catching napoleon's eye surreptitiously. The cat-Regent nodded.

"_I'll get back to Lillian fer now, Mattie. Help the rest of 'em out;"_ Matt nodded back once to him and grabbed Caleb's sleeve.

"If we're gonna split up, I'll stick with Caleb. I'm guessing you're headed to the Lins' next, right?"

"Yeah," the young rebel sighed.

"I gotta get back home to T'ree." Peter admitted. He gave the other boys all a thankful handshake and Susan a sympathetic hug. "Don't worry, Mizz V., we'll find 'em."

"Yeah," 'Nigel' added.

Sue nodded miserably from under Dean's protective arm. "We'll go talk to Anna; let her know Tom's on-scene here and reassure her that nothing the news is going to report is true," Dean said. He and Susan made their way out of the morose group, headed towards the Lair residence.

"Aunt Sue, I want to go with Pete," Stephanie blurted. "I want to talk to Taranee about Will." Susan came to an abrupt halt, turning to look at her adoptive daughter.

"I … I'd really rather you stayed with me, Stephanie. We'll all be meeting tonight at the Silver Dragon. You can talk to her then… okay?"

Stephanie blinked in shock. Her Aunt wanted her around? "I … really? O-okay …"

"I'll let her know you wanna talk," Peter said, clapping a hand on her shoulder. Stephanie thanked him with a wince; he'd driven the clasp of her bra strap and the chain of the Heart into her skin. "Comin', Nige?"

Matt nudged Mister Huggles when he didn't answer right away. "Oh, yes. To see Taranee. Yes." He gave Matt a too hearty handshake, said, "See you later," to the other with a frighteningly toothy smile, and the pair took off toward the Cook house.

"What's up with Nigel?" Dean asked Matt. He knew the band-mates were good friends, as well as both dating members of W.i.t.c.h.

"He's … just worried about Taranee," the dark-haired boy replied.

"As are we all," Cassidy said. She gave Susan another wary look. "I'll see you at the Lins', Caleb. I … think I'd better tell Taranee myself … Guardian–to–Guardian; so to speak." She looked at Dean briefly where he stood holding Susan upright. Then she followed Peter and 'Nigel'.

"So, Anna Lair, then over to the Lins', huh?" Dean asked Susan.

"Somebody has to go back to Cornelia's, too," Caleb blurted. When the others turned his way, glaring, he rubbed the back of his head, "Well, we started there, but we had that girl Almy tagging along, and we couldn't say anything in front of her …"

"Right, because nobody's suspicious of anything yet …" Susan hissed sarcastically, noticing the frequent looks Tom's partner kept throwing their way.

"Time to go," Dean murmured, and the group broke up to their destinations.

_Angst_

Miranda grinned maliciously down at the somber trio she was following. She stuck to treetops and window ledges, ducking from sight the second any of them turned around. She wasn't sure which she was trying to avoid the attention of the most. Caleb and Matt were both serious threats to her continued freedom, while the passling (who'd appeared from behind a nearby dumpster after the boys had separated from the others) could give her away at any second.

The three were also among her primary targets. She knew she'd never get the damnable Guardians alone to take out her revenge, so she'd settled on killing their mates as they had slain hers. Caleb was first on the list. If it hadn't been for him and the putrescent passling; she'd have accomplished the downfall of the she-witches before Cedric's demise.

She clacked her fangs irritably. Alone, she may have been able to take any of them. Like this, she'd have to bide her time … and her patience – and her hunger – were both clamoring for their blood. Miranda glanced back towards the collapsed building. Maybe she'd have better luck with one of the other boyfriends, first.

'_Hmm, the red-haired boy is sweet on the Fire Guardian,'_ she mused. _'After all, she's the one who finished him.'_ Miranda had arrived on Earth in the wee hours of the morning, and the battle site had been all-too-easy to find. She'd seen the fallen prince, and the unmistakable scent of flash-fried snakechanger had still hung nauseatingly in the air.

That still hadn't stopped her from following the other fainter trail of Taranee and the others back to the blonde brat's house, and the strange scene of the Guardians' families meeting. Last she'd heard, the wenches had been hiding their abilities from their parents. Now, it looked like the opposite was true.

It just gave Miranda more deserving targets.

With a last disdainful look at her first choice of prey, she went around the building she was on the side of and went to follow the red-haired boy and girl with the fire-witch's brother. She suspected they would be easier to tackle than the rebel leader, the Earth Regent, and the luckiest passling on Metamoor.

_Angst_

Nigel sat down again in the chair by Taranee's bed. He'd held out as long as possible, but eventually, a restroom run had been necessary. He's only been gone a minute, but he feared leaving her alone even that long. She looked so _sad_.

Taranee wasn't asleep. She was curled up on her side, looking at the wall past his watching eyes expressionlessly. Her glasses were on her nearby night stand, but she didn't have the drive to bother putting them back on to face her boyfriend, let alone the rest of the multiverse. A sigh escaped her as she thought of all the dimensions she'd seen through those lenses, now unprotected without the Guardians.

Nigel reached out to hold her shoulder at her sigh, then hesitated, turning his head away as his eyes welled with tears of his own. He didn't know if he should hold her, or wait. The first time he'd tried earlier, she'd been facing the other way, and had reacted to his touch as if attacked, flailing out with surprising strength and knocking him across the room. He hadn't been hurt, but his hesitation now was understandable. Worse, beyond rolling to face him then, she hadn't moved since, save for the occasional deeper breath or autonomic blink.

"I'm sorry," he heard her say from behind him. Whirling back around, he was shocked to find her hand reached out to caress his cheek where she'd clobbered him earlier. "I never meant to hurt you."

"It's okay, Taranee," he said, smiling gently. Her hand slid away, and he caught it with his own still-extended one. "My fault anyway; you're a superhero. I should know better than to startle you." Her eyes closed, her brow furrowed, and her shoulders trembled. "What? What'd I say?" he cried, scared.

"Some superhero," she sobbed softly. "I didn't save anybody." Her body shuddered with her renewed crying, and Nigel couldn't stop himself this time; he moved from the chair to her bed, pulling her up into his arms as she started bawling in earnest, disjointedly sobbing out her best four friends' names occasionally into his chest. He just held her.

_Angst_

"You're sure about this?" Alborn asked. He handed Elyon her old crown.

"I've been recognized as Crown Princess. I need to be inducted as Queen correctly, and now is better than later. Right, Mom?" She dropped her circlet back onto her head and straightened her braids.

"By Meridian custom yes, dear," Miriadel nodded. "Though I don't think we've ever had such a rush for a coronation. Even by your brother …" She traded a look with her Earth husband.

"What happened with Phobos, anyway?" Elyon asked. "Nobody will tell me."

"Honey, your mother and father were dead less than a week before Phobos claimed the throne. All in your name, of course, but we heard about his plan for you and your magic back then, and spirited you away as soon as we could." She took Elyon's shoulders.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty," Kitki said from the doorway. "The assemblage is ready." Elyon nodded nervously at her, and turned back to Miriadel.

"I want to be the Queen our people need, Mom."

"And I know you will be, honey. And just think of all the advancements we can introduce … like indoor plumbing," Miriadel grinned for a second, then her expression softened. "Bad as it was for Meridian in the meanwhile, I'm glad we had our time on Earth." The Brown women hugged.

"Ditto, kiddo," Alborn grinned, proving he'd spend just that much too long on Earth, himself. Elyon giggled, and he wrapped his arms around both of them. "Let's get you coronated."

Alborn and Miriadel let go of her, straightened their respective uniforms, and the trio followed Kitki out to the Meridian palace throne room. The gathered minor nobles and court officials all bowed at Elyon's entrance, and broke into spontaneous applause as the Army Captain and Royal Guard Commander followed their adopted daughter out.

Alborn let the tumult die down, and stepped forward to address the crowd. "My fellow Meridianites, thank you, for that rousing welcome. But we are here merely to see to the instatement of our Heart as the one true Queen of Meridian." He and Miriadel both bowed low once to the excited, murmuring crowd and then turned together to salute and bow to Elyon.

"Thank you, Commander," the super-powered teen girl said, bowing back to him, "And Captain," she added, turning to her adopted mother. She bowed to her as well, proud tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Your Highness," they both replied, kneeling now. They couldn't hide their pride in her, either. Elyon's gasp was music to their ears as they heard the rest of the gathered nobles and officials kneel as well.

"Well met, Your Majesty," The High Magistrate said, as he came forward and bowed before her. "I, Pretha Skivin, as keeper of the Word, am here to swear you in as our Queen."

"Let's get this party started," Elyon replied with a grin. The grin didn't last long, though the ceremony did, until long after sunset.


	24. Chapter 24

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 24_

The Guardians swooped back into the ice ravine, except for Nigel, who stayed up top as a lookout. Gen and Alchemy dug a small tunnel through the blockade they'd made, and Kor and Napoleon shifted invisible, then ducked inside.

Taranee opened her mind up, following the cat and the dormouse as they scampered up tunnel after tunnel. She was aware of the background murmur of the other Guardians around her: Gen and Steph were both talking resignedly about French classes; Alchemy was humming along to a replay of Evanescence in her head, and Nigel …

She almost missed Nigel. He wasn't on the ridge above them. He was a hundred meters over their heads, looking in the direction of the crater her Auramere Altermere had left behind. Taranee could hear a string of worrying thoughts rolling through Nigel's mind, but nothing definite. She turned her attention back to their pair of scouts.

"_There's nothing in here,"_ Napoleon told her. He relayed image after image of tunnels empty of all except ice, abandoned tools, and a few fallen octopi. Damage to these made it obvious they were among those the teens and Regents had battled earlier, left behind as (literal) dead weight by their cephalopod companions.

Mister Huggles started to chitter in concurrence, then abruptly fell silent as he projected an image from around the next corner in front of him.

Under the ice of Antarctica, in a city of ancient stone, floated wave upon wave of magic-eating octopi. Alchemy gasped; Gen and Steph exchanged stricken looks; Nigel, receiving the images a second after the others from Taranee, flew straight down to her side. He pulled her into his arms as she sobbed with the enormity of their upcoming task.

"_Napoleon … how many are there?"_ He asked the cat.

"_Just a sec …"_ He sent back, teletransporting to Kor's position._ "Jeez, if they held still, this'd be easier, but … on a guess from the size of the cavern and the average size of our new playmates …"_

"_Twenty-seven thousand … if they aren't in the buildings too,"_ Alchemy supplied.

"$#!+," Nigel blurted. Taranee '_Eeeep'_ed and slapped his shoulder. "We're gonna need a lot more lurdens …" he added unrepentantly.

"_We got bigger problems, kids,"_ Napoleon told the teens. He and Kor 'ported back to the kids' position at the mouth of the warren. "Better close that," Napoleon said to Alchemy, as the pair reappeared in both senses.

She nodded numbly, her mind still reeling from her own arithmetic. The Water and Earth Guardians moved the pile of debris so it resettled, closing the small hole they'd made for their furry pair of scouts.

"Now what?" Nigel asked.

"Now..?" Napoleon sighed. "Back to Candracar, kids. There's somethin' I gotta look up in the library before we proceed."

"Ooookaayyy," Steph said, calling out the Heart again and opening a new fold.

"Yipes!" Alchemy interrupted. "Somebody get me to Meridian … somebody's gotta tell Elly 'bout the delay," she explained when they all glared at her questioningly.

"Gotcha, doll," Napoleon said. "Kor, can you get her there?" The dormouse nodded and chattered. "Yeah, meet us in the Council Chamber after. We'll have to fill in Mattie when we're finished, though …"

"Why not bring them all?" Gen asked. "The Browns, the Hales, _Furen_ Vandom …" He cleared his throat. "The other parents, too, this time. Others need to know, _bu_?"

"_Siiii_," Nigel answered in a falsetto Hispanic accent. Taranee slapped him again lightly, chuckling. He hugged her back.

Alchemy rolled her eyes. "Well, I guess now we know who inherited the job of 'silliest Guardian' from Irma," she sighed, and scooped up Mister Huggles. After a nuzzle, he hopped onto her shoulder.

"Ready?" Alchemy asked him, and he held himself upright with one paw on her ear, then waved the other in front of them, opening a second fold. "See you all in a few … " the Water Guardian said as she took them through to Meridian.

"You kids really wanna get the parents in on this?" Napoleon asked, looking up at all of them in turn.

"Some of 'em, maybe …" Steph replied hesitantly. "I mean … okay, Aunt Sue's apparently come 'round to our side all of a sudden, and the Hales're all for anything that'll keep Lillian safe, but, well … C'mon … last time we saw the Lairs, Tom and Anna were both barely civil to each other over this, and the Lins ..?" She looked at Gen, waiting (hoping, like all the others!) to hear of a miraculous paradigm shift in the former Air Guardian's parents' perspective.

"_Bu_," he muttered, hanging his head. "But this is why I think they should come to Candracar. _Shenmu_ and _Shufu_ are …" He swore softly in Chinese, and Steph refused to translate it.

"That bad, huh?" Taranee asked for the others' sakes. She'd already 'heard' it in his unsettled thoughts.

"Yan and Mira are not even trying anymore, my friends. Hay Lin's death has made a hole in our family, and it is my _giri_ to set things right." Steph even blinked at the term.

"Your … obligation?" She clarified for the others. "Oh, Gen … _shiongdi_ …" She bowed her head as well.

"_Shiongdi?_" Napoleon asked, remembering hearing the word before.

"Brother …" Taranee told him for the pair.

"Where've I heard that?" The Cat-Regent wondered.

"That… '_ahem!_' That first afternoon…" Stephanie managed. "When we found the … the rat bodies… Nigel said it to … Caleb, I think?"

"The #&][ I did!" Nigel spat. "I wasn't even there! I was with Taranee that afternoon after school! I was…"

"Keeping me sane," Taranee interrupted his insipient rant. She wove her fingers through with his where he still held her close, and he kissed the top of her head.

"But… he was with us the whole time…" Stephanie sputtered.

"No… that was Kor," Napoleon told her reluctantly.

"Wha… bu… why didn't you guys just cover for the girls that way?" The new Air Guardian demanded.

Napoleon sighed. "One, there was only the two of us that could have successfully pulled it off for any length of time, 'specially' since Mattie couldn't go missin' again; Two, our four girls're gonna have to be found, and _soon_, by people who actually know what's goin' on, and Three …"

"Can we just do this?" Taranee moaned into Nigel's chest. The others cringed again, but agreed.

"Okay, who else're we bringing?" Stephanie asked. She turned from the fold to Candracar, and opened a fresh one to the Silver Dragon instead. "I'll help Gen with the Lins, and send them on to Elyon's house before I get Aunt Sue, Peter, and the Teach."

"Don't forget Mina," Taranee told her. "And send me to Missus Rudolph's. I'll tell Galghieta the latest, and let her decide if she wants to come as well."

"You want company, Beauty?" Nigel murmured to her.

"No, I need you to go get Cass." Taranee replied. "But… thanks, Beast." She leaned up and kissed him. His larger wings slowly folded around both of them, and Napoleon coughed meaningfully when they showed no signs of wanting to part.

"I'll head to the library ahead of ya all, and start my research." Napoleon hopped through the fold to Candracar.

"Missus Rudolph's," Stephanie said, with a wave of her hand to open first one fold, then another. "Dean's house, Nige." They knew Cass went there to study for her return to normal life. "We'll see you all at Elyon's," she said, then she and Gen leapt through to the Lin family restaurant.

Nigel and Taranee stood together for a few more seconds, enjoying the rare moment of privacy, and then parted through the other two folds to their respective tasks.

_Angst_

Alchemy and Huggles arrived in Elyon's throne room to a scene of barely-organized chaos. "Whoa, what happened here?" the newest Water Guardian asked a passing squire.

"Ah, apologies, Guardian, but the Queen has asked us to rush preparations for an arctic voyage." The young blue-skinned man sketched a hurried salute and continued on his way.

Mister Huggles chattered on Alchemy's shoulder and motioned with his nose, "Let me guess; that way to Elyon, right?" He nodded, and the girl took off down the indicated hall. Three turns, a stairway, two more turns, and an interminable walk down a seemingly endless corridor later, the pair stopped outside an ornate set of doors.

Alchemy had just raised her hand to knock when the doors opened before them. Huggles went skittering inside with a leap, leaving Alchemy facing a grey-skinned, cat-eared girl. "Uh, hi … is Elyon here?"

"Mistress Alchemy! Oh, what a surprise! Yes! Yes, please, come in, come in!" The cat-girl stepped back, bowing low and waving a hand into the room.

"Er … thanks …" Alchemy said, following. She came to a stop a second later, gawking. Elyon hadn't shown the new Guardians her personal suite in the Meridian Palace. All Alchemy could think now was that it was due to sheer embarrassment from the opulence now surrounding her. "Wow, Elly …"

"Wha …_'YAWN!'_ What's up?" Elyon asked sleepily from a divan by her balcony.

"We found out how many 'pods are left, Elyon … and Napoleon went to Candracar to find something out. We're s'posed to meet everybody there … Hey, why're you asleep?"

"Her Majesty was exhausted when she arrived," the grey girl said. "She was issuing orders for a northern Lycaania expedition, and collapsed. I had her brought back to her rooms to recover."

"Ohmigod, you collapsed, Elly?" Alchemy gasped, crossing the room in a dash to hug her friend. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, now … I guess T'ree was right. I just needed a nap back in Meridian to recharge after our draining earlier."

Alchemy just looked at her for a moment, puzzled. "You know what? I'll ask later; something tells me it's important, but not immediate." Alchemy looked around again. "Why did you come back to Heatherfield?" Elyon giggled at her avaricious tone.

"What, and let you guys suffer through the rest of high school without me? What kid of friend would that make me? So …" she asked, her voice turning serious, "How many octopi _are_ we talking about?" She nabbed Mister Huggles from where he was investigating under her divan, and sat scratching under his chin absentmindedly.

"Twenty-seven thousand plus, Elly," Alchemy said reluctantly. "I knew you should hear that before heading back with troops."

"You're right," Elyon whistled. "That's more than just a company of lurdens' worth, that's for sure. I'd have to bring back practically the whole standing army of Meridian to fight that …"

"Mistress … what new enemy is this?" Kitki asked fearfully.

"Enemies of the Heart of Earth, who the Guardians and her Regents are sworn to protect, Kitki." Elyon nabbed her old sketchbook up and started scribbling on a page. "They're flying octopuses that eat magic." She held up her hurried sketch in illustration, and Alchemy snorted at the eerie picture of one of their eight-legged foes sucking out little waves of water from a caricature of herself.

"Cute, Elly …"

"You face … _thousands_ of these?" Kitki moaned, shredding a corner of her dress under her wringing claws. Huggles crooned calmingly.

"Yeah … Kitki, was it?" Alchemy waited for the grey-skinned girl to nod an affirmative. "Well, with three united Hearts, it's more a matter of containment rather than battle. Right now, we just need to get enough troops to keep 'em occupied long enough to send 'em back where they came from …"

"Wherever that is," Elyon interjected.

"… So we can get back to finding the other Guardians," Alchemy finished.

"Yeah … and hey, we've already got a good clue where Will is, and maybe Hay-Hay too," Elyon said with a renewed smile.

"Really? Where?" Alchemy and Kitki asked together. Elyon flinched back from their enthusiasm, but didn't lose her grin.

"While we were going to the nurse after lunch, Steph told me how she got the Heart from Will," The young Queen told them. "It tied in with how Mina got our attention just now … if that even _was_ Mina, and not Will crying for help after all."

"Something tells me her sisters – and her mother – aren't gonna just quit anytime soon, either way." Alchemy replied.

"What of the Air Guardian?" Kitki pled.

"Well, I've noticed that Nigel's been filling in a lot of blanks for people lately, and it's not all stuff that Taranee could have told him first, it's kinda like … he's been listening to the wind …" She turned to Alchemy again, "Rem when that thing with Mina started, and he gave T'ree the 'drop idea, _right after that gust of air popped up,_ in Aunt Susan's living room?"

"Yeah … Yeah!" Alchemy nodded, smiling as well now.

"Taranee'd pick up on it quick enough too, I'm sure, if everything else weren't going on …" Elyon nibbled her lip for a minute, letting her worrying mind run free about their fiery friend. Then she gathered herself together again. Something told her they were all going to need specialized therapy by the end of all of this, but she was determined to save her breakdown until then, and fervently hoped it wasn't much longer. She looked back at Alchemy to see the well-named girl was already brainstorming ideas under her breath. Elyon smiled at the mention of Tesla coils and wind traps. _'Well,'_ she mused, _'There's one less puzzle for T'ree, at least. Now we just have to figure out what became of Irma and Corny …'_ The inadvertent use of her best friend's hated nickname made her chuckle evilly, and she stood up, breaking Alchemy out of her metascientific speculation.

"C'mon, A.J. let's check in with Candracar. We can come back for the troops when Nappy's filled us in." While Alchemy was still gaping at her for the use of not one but _two_ no-no names in the same sentence, the Queen turned to her valet. "Kitki, instruct Aldarn we'll need a company of fifty arctic-trained guards first trip, and to be prepared to mobilize the rest of the army if necessary." She opened a fold between her divan and her writing desk.

Kitki nodded her assent and stepped back, Alchemy went through with a last evil glare at Elyon, and the Queen followed, still holding onto Kor Huggles. As she was turning to leave the Queen's chambers, Kitki noticed Elyon's sketchbook, the page with her hurried drawing of this new foe still on the top.

"This may be important." Kitki said, reverently picking up the book. After a quick internal debate, she wrapped it in a small blanket and carried it with her to properly warn the troops.


	25. Chapter 25

_**Angst**_

A W.i.t.c.h. Fanfiction by: _A J_

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue. The O.C.'s Steph and Gen are mine, as is the plot.

Summary: Zenith was NOT the end of the story, even if it WAS the end of W.i.t.c.h. …

_Chapter 25_

Subtlety was getting here nowhere, Miranda realized. She waited until the three teens had separated in the … _mall_? She thought the red-haired boy had called it thus, when they stopped for privy breaks on their walk. Doing her best to not use her nose, Miranda transformed around a bend in the corridor and followed the girl in. It wasn't ideal; it was close quarters at best, but here was her first chance at one of them alone all day.

Cassidy was through with her duties to body and digestion quickly enough, but she spent several slow moments afterward in front of the giant wall-mirror, just looking at her own reflection. What was new? What wasn't? What had changed irrevocably after last night's disastrous conclusion? She stared into her own eyes, contemplating the last question, smiling sadly whenever the water kicked back on in the automated faucet due to her proximity.

That's when the monster caught up with her.

Someone really should have warned Miranda of the dangers of attacking a water-wielder on a dimension that had modern plumbing, the shape-shiftier thought later, sourly. She never knew how many jets of water hit her, knocking her out. She came to, drenched, in an unfamiliar (to her at least) world of towering metallic mountains and glittering trees.

_angst_

Lionel & Theresa Cook came home from their concert in Middleton late that afternoon to a most unwelcome sight. Their little girl was home alone, in her room, with the red-haired Ansbury boy. The pair were fully dressed, but that didn't reassure the two overprotective parents in the least. Then they saw the expression the teens both wore, and Theresa and Lionel knew something else, much worse than the possibility of their teen daughter growing up sexually, was wrong.

"Taranee?" Theresa asked, gently, sitting down on the bed next to the two. Her daughter's pale heartbroken face looked up from Nigel's shoulder, and crumpled further. Mother and daughter fell into each other's arms, and Nigel stood for the first time again in several hours.

"What happened?" Lionel asked him urgently.

"The other girls …" Nigel started, and coughed the lump he'd had at the back of his throat all day out of the way long enough to bring the last set of parents up-to-date … at least, cover story up-to-date. "Corny, Hay, Irma, and Will … They're gone. The Galemore collapsed in a fire, and they saved everybody else … but they're gone … Taranee's the only W.I.T.C.H. left …" He broke off, unable to keep his head up. He turned to walk out blindly, leaving Taranee to her mother's more capable ministrations even as Lionel collapsed into his daughter's desk chair. Nigel had gotten barely three steps when he heard her parents both exclaim, and Taranee was once again wrapped in his arms. "Tee …?" he gasped.

"Don't go!" she cried, fresh tears soaking his shirt on the other side. _"Please …" _she added mentally. He nodded, turned, and walked them both back to the bed. Theresa wrapped sorrowfully around them both from Taranee's other side once they'd sat back down, and Lionel set a steadying hand on Nigel's shoulder.

They stayed like that until Peter found them, coming back with Cass and Kor (now masked as Matt instead of Nigel) to escort Taranee to the Silver Dragon.

_angst_

Anna opened the door reluctantly after checking through the eyehole in the reinforced panel. She didn't have anything against her fellow bereft mother Susan Vandom. She just wasn't sure she had it in her right then to talk about all of it more. "Susan, Dean, Hi … and … Who're you?" She asked their blonde companion.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie," she replied haltingly. Then with a grin she added, "Susan's youngest." Dean cleared his throat, interrupting the young woman.

"Yes, well … Won't you come in?" Anna asked unenthusiastically. She stepped to the side, creating a minute but available entrance. Dean and Susan exchanged a glance, then both just shook their heads.

"We've got more stops, still, before the Lins, Anna," Sue said quietly. "We just came from the Galemore. Tom and Paul were there, along with a couple dozen rescue workers. We're going around to tell all those involved …" She choked to a stop.

"What?" Anna hissed. "Tell us what?"

"Search and Rescue found some bodies," Dean told her. "It's probably all over the news …" He had to reach out and grab Anna's arm as she spun to run back in to the television. "Anna! It's _not the girls!"_ he yelped when she whirled on him, furious.

"Who else was _there? Taranee said they got everybody else OUT, Collins!"_ she exploded.

"Missus Lair, please! We're trying to tell you …" Steph started to say, when …

"Mom! _MOM! Dad's on TV!"_ Chris yelled from the Lair living room.

"We better take this inside, after all," Sue sighed.

"Oh, by all means, inside," Anna spat. She waited for the three to pass her, slammed the door, then shoved through them on her way to Chris' still-yelling side.

"_Jeez_, mom. Glad I'm not gushing _blood're_ nothin'…" he groused.

"Oh, _he's_ not related to Irma," Dean observed drolly. Anna rolled her eyes.

"Now, what about your father?" she asked Chris. He played with the remote for a second, putting the news back up and rewinding with their DVR feature.

"… _**REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND, YES, BUT THEIR IDENTITIES HAVE NOT BEEN CONFIRMED, YET …" **_ Officer Tom Lair's voice blared from their home-theatre system. Chris hurriedly turned the volume down, so he was once again looking the wrong way (he'd been busy yelling for his mom the first time) when HNN showed a fleeting glimpse of the slab as it was moved, and the four bodies underneath it. Anna's gasp and Susan's groan made the six-year-old look up, but the scene had already shifted.

"_I thought you said_ IT WASN'T _THEM_?" Anna Lair fairly shrieked.

"Who wasn't? What wasn't?" Chris asked, confused. He went to rewind again, but his panicking mother snatched the remote from his hands.

"Mom?" Chris squeaked, seeing the wild look in her eyes. She collapsed onto their couch, trying not to cry. Susan sat next to her, taking the distraught woman's hands.

"_Anna_," she said forcefully. Their eyes met, mother to mother. "That wasn't the girls. That was something Taranee and Elyon thought up as an emergency back-up …"

"This was their _back_-_up_?" Anna choked. She glared from Sue to Dean to Stephanie. "What's your part in this ...?"

"Me? I just moved here, I'm too new to know anything about _anything_ yet …" Steph blurted.

"Know anything about what?" Chris whined. He was six, not stupid. He knew when he was getting the runaround. "Is this about Irma?" he asked Dean Collins, vaguely recognizing the older man from various parent-teacher conferences at Irma's school.

"Yes," Dean admitted while Sue and Anna lowered their gazes.

'_Oh boy.'_ Steph found herself thinking. "Heya, kiddo … How about you show me your room while the grown-ups get to be boring out here?"

"No! If this's about my sister and Hay-hay, I wanna know too!" the youngest Lair shouted, stomping a foot.

Stephanie gave the adults a small _'Hey I tried,'_ shrug, and sat on the couch next to Susan.

"_What_ is going on?" Anna asked in exasperation.

"Okay, we're getting this second-hand from … Cassidy and Caleb, who went back to Can … Can … wherever, last night," Susan began. She went on to relate the conversation held in the Council Chamber. Dean and Stephanie added what they remembered the other pair saying whenever she forgot – or skipped – a detail they though relevant.

"&*, that's messed up," Chris spat, getting surprised snorts from Dean and Sue, a quickly-suppressed giggle from Steph, and a hand waved warningly at him by his incredulous, staring mother.

"You go wash your mouth out, young man," She squeaked, glaring. While he dragged his feet leaving, obviously wanting to hear whatever else was said, Anna turned back to the others.

"Let me get this straight … This Council of otherworldly busybodies sent a pair of their spare kids down to look for _our_ lost ones, not knowing the last one left made some emergency duplicate _dead_ bodies because she wasn't sure yet that there was _anything to search for?"_ Anna was short of breath by the end, huffing with her anxiety. Susan could hardly blame her.

"Pretty much, yeah…" Stephanie said. That was what she'd gathered from the whole thing so far, as well.

"So … what now?" Anna asked.

"We pass it along to the other parents, we keep our eyes open for any sign of our missing girls … and we hope," Dean replied, his arms around Sue's shoulders from over the back of the couch.

She gave him a shaky smile, while Anna added, "And we pray."

_angst_

Fang answered the backdoor of The Silver Dragon at Matt's knock. "Yes? Ah, Caleb! Did you forget your key again?" The Lins' best unrelated cook looked at the two boys expectantly. From his blotchy face, they could tell he'd been crying … or into the onions …

"My key? Er … yeah …" Caleb managed. So far as he knew, his key for the Chinese restaurant was still in a backpack full of walkie-talkies he'd left behind in Meridian sometime last week. Caleb cleared his throat. "Did the Lins tell you about Hay-Hay?" he managed to ask as they followed Fang inside. The crestfallen look that took over Fang's face spoke volumes.

"Where is everyone?" Matt asked after an uncomfortably silent minute. _Too_ silent; even the restaurant, through the kitchen doors, was quiet.

"Chen never opened up at lunchtime," Fang rumbled, then pulled his apron up and blew his nose loudly on it. "That's when he told me. I stayed to keep them all company … none of them have slept, or even eaten, since they got back this morning …"

"Not _slept_?" Matt muttered, now doubly worried. "Even Yan and … Mira?" He hoped Fang wouldn't catch the pause.

"No … but Chen _did_ drink something …" Fang admitted to then, with a teary sigh. "Actually, Chen drank a _lot_ of things. All the cooking alcohol in the restaurant …"

"Fang … where are they all now?" Caleb asked.

"Oh! They … saw the news, about the bodies at the Galemore, and went down to the Morgue to … identify little Hay-hay …" Fang broke down sobbing again before the two boys, so he didn't see the alarmed look they traded.

"All …" Caleb had to gulp down the sudden lump in his throat. "All of them?" he finally managed to ask.

"Yes!" Fang wailed. He looked up and saw the fresh worry on their faces. "Oh … OH! Don't worry! I made sure _Joan_ drove. She didn't drink … any … anything," he added miserably. Matt and Caleb traded another look, this time of shared sorrow and relief, and guided Fang back to the chair he'd obviously risen from to answer their knock at the door. Caleb wrapped a throw blanket from the basement around the sobbing man, and Matt made sure the alley door was locked behind them as they left.

Once outside, Caleb turned to the young Regent. "Now what?"

"Now, we hope they get stuck in traffic, so we can meet them there before they see Hay Lin's dead body up close, so we can tell them it isn't," Matt said, grabbed hold of Caleb's arm, and teletransported the pair from behind the Silver Dragon to the darkest corner of the underground employee parking levels below Saint Nicholas Hospital. They ran from there to the Morgue as fast as they could …


End file.
